My friend Allie recently tagged me in her blog post which was 10 unique things about her and she challenged me to make a similar post (check out her blog at Short for Alexandra). It sounded like a fun idea, so here are 10 things you might not have known about me! Did you know any of these? Are any of them shocking? Who knows me best? Let me know in the comments below!
1. The first sport I ever played was soccer. Many of you know that I’ve done tae kwon do for more than 13 years, but did you know I started out in soccer at six years old? I was a goalie on a team we voted to name ourselves the Tigers, and let me tell ya, we were pretty cute little tigers. I helped bring the team to an undefeated victory! Turned out though that I was super shy, had a hard time connecting on a team, and didn’t have as much fun as I thought I would. So that was my first and last season of soccer. Later my mom signed me up for tae kwon do, hoping it would break me out of my shell and that I’d shine doing a more independent sport. She was right.
My sister Blake and I
2. I grew up as an only child, but now have a half-sister. For practically all of my childhood it was just me, mom and dad, but in my teens I learned that I had a half sister. My dad told me that he found out he had another daughter from a relationship before he met my mom. It was a crazy feeling discovering I had a long lost sister, but I was excited about it. We met briefly when I was younger, but I didn’t start seeing Blake regularly until my later teen years. It’s been a unique journey for us both, but I could not be happier that I now have a sister in my life! I’m so glad I have her to turn to for advice and to share everything with. We love being silly together and somehow we always turn the conversation naughty and crack each other up. Now I always tell people that I got the best of both worlds – I grew up as a spoiled only child and now appreciate the joys of having an older sister. Life wouldn’t be the same without her now that she’s a part of mine! I love you sissy!
3. I won a poetry contest when I was 16. When I was about 12 years old, my cousin Allison showed me some poems that she wrote in her diary. I was impressed and thought I’d give it a try myself. I discovered that it actually came pretty easy to me to write rhymes and flowing stanzas. From that point on I kept a special poetry journal and would write a love poem for every guy I had a crush on. (Lucky for those I shared them with! 😉 ) In high school I took the talent more seriously and wrote about more serious topics. One day I had to write a poem for a class assignment and I chose to write about segregation from a black girl’s perspective. I was really proud of it and decided I’d turn it into a local poetry contest at the library. To my surprise, I won 2nd place!
4. I used to be borderline anemic. When I was very young I used to complain all the time about being tired. I was very weak and couldn’t even make it through a trip to the grocery store without complaining to my mom that I was tired and wanted to leave. Whenever we’d go to restaurants, I’d fall asleep laying down on my mom’s lap at the table. My mom hated when I’d do that, but for the longest time we didn’t know that it was all because I was anemic and low on iron. It explained my strange behavior of eating a whole can of beets by myself, because they’re full of iron (what 5 year old likes beets?!) Eventually I went to the doctor and learned about what was going on and started taking iron supplements. I think it also helped once I started tae kwon do because eventually I was no longer anemic! I don’t have to take iron supplements anymore and I definitely don’t fall asleep at restaurants anymore – thank goodness.
Me repelling during Army ROTC
5. I almost joined the Army and participated in Army ROTC. In high school, it was an option that crossed my mind as I neared graduation – I even went to speak to a recruiter. I decided I wasn’t ready for such a commitment and I wanted to go to college instead. But then in my sophomore year I faced a financial dilemma and learned that I could get financial aid by participating in ROTC, so I decided to give it another shot. I joined Army ROTC for fall quarter that year and ended up losing 7 pounds in two weeks thanks to all the physical training! I learned about land navigation, repelling, all the ranks, endless abbreviations, the difference between a raid and an ambush and even wore a uniform…but after the quarter was over, I realized it wasn’t my passion. I didn’t want to sign up for a six year contract with the National Guard and end up hating it. In conclusion, I’m glad I had the experience (I learned and appreciate so much!) but I’m even happier that I chose to pursue a different path. And apparently at this point I decided I’d just date military men instead…
6. I used to be so shy that I would cry when my picture was taken. This goes back to the pre-tae kwon do stage of my life where I credit all of my confidence to. I bet it’s pretty hard for many of you to believe that I used to be so shy, considering how outgoing I am now. I remember when I was about five years old and my mom took me to have Yen Lui portraits taken and I was such a little brat about it! I refused to have my picture taken and I cried to the point that my eyes got all puffy. Later, my mom tried to bribe me with a gift of my own personal disposable camera if I agreed to get my pictures taken – and it worked! I thought having my own camera was SO COOL and I think this might have been how I got interested in photography.
Darrin’s Dance Grooves
7. I’ve always had a secret desire to become a professional hip hop dancer. Ok, I know, pretty hilarious. But seriously – when I was like ten years old I was totally set on becoming a dancer. Do you remember Darrin’s Dance Grooves? (The guy who choreographed Britney Spears’ and Nsync’s music videos) Yea, I begged my mom to buy me his VHS and I taught myself the dances in my bedroom. I even pretended to create my own dance studio called “K-T Dancing” (short for Kari and Tyler…my then-crush!). Obviously I never followed through on this dream and I do regret never taking dance lessons. Maybe someday…but I bet you had no idea.
8. I used to have anxiety attacks in high school. Ok, this one is really personal. I’ve hardly told this to anyone, but now I’m not so scared to share it. I went through a really hard time in my teenage years, thanks to puberty, and later learned this was probably due to a hormone imbalance. I was (am?) a perfectionist and I’d get really anxious about school and other things. I had no reason to be anxious really – I got straight A’s in school! But nevertheless, I would stress myself out so much that I started throwing up every morning before school. It really started to take a toll on my health, both physically and mentally, but thankfully therapy and medicine helped. I eventually got out of the rut and I’ve since learned so much about myself! High school is rough – everyone has their different reason. Always be kind to others – you may never know that they’re going through something difficult.
After catching the bride’s bouquet
9. It is one of my utmost desires to be a bridesmaid in someone’s wedding. I’ve never been that girl that fantasizes about her future wedding, but I do however, fantasize about being in my friends’ weddings! I’ve never been a part of a wedding party and I always thought it would be so much fun! The closest I’ve gotten is catching the bouquet! (Just two weekends ago I did! Uh oh…you know what that means…) Hopefully one of these days a friend will get married and will ask me to be their bridesmaid…
10. When I was four years old my nana slammed the trunk of a car on my head. Explains a lot, right? Yea it was actually pretty traumatic – I still remember it pretty vividly. Tiny little four year old me was peeking into my nana’s trunk after a trip to Nordstrom. She was putting her bags in there and she didn’t notice that I was right there, looking into the trunk. Suddenly she closed the trunk and my head happened to be just level with the latch. And just like that my skull was cut open. I remember the ambulence coming and they even gave me a teddy bear! They almost gave me stitches but said I could live without them and my mom opted out. I healed up just fine (there might be permanent damage…but we’ll never know) and now I can show you a cool little scar underneath my hairline. It was totally an accident and my nana felt terrible, but I like to tease her about abusing me sometimes. 🙂
Kari
The Real World 
uh, i knew all 11 but i’m probably disqualified. 🙂