Appreciating Charlotte

Charlotte, I hope you like the pic I found from DeviantArt to go with your appreciating you post!  I like LOTR as well.  😉  Thank you in participating in this lil idea I had!

For those of you just checking out the blog, in a previous post I invited commentors to write their own self-appreciating and self-acceptance posts that I will make into their own posts for them.  I will continue to post the self-acceptance comments as they come in (and as I get permission to make them into their own posts).  To give each post a nice amount of time in the sun, I will post only one or two a day, since I’m not being drowned in hundreds of them.  😉

Here is Charlotte’s:

Oh, thank you! Thank you, thank you! I so need this right now. I’ve been dumping on myself all day; earlier I looked myself in the mirror and said “I feel so ugly, lonely and gross today. Ugh.” I think sitting down and writing positive things about myself will help me feel better. And I give you permission to make a post out of my list! It’ll give me something positive to look at, and it could help other people. Okay, here it goes:

-I’m a grad student. I go to seminary, where I’m studying, training, and preparing to become a pastor. I’m part of a denomination that endorses women in pastoral ministry (as well as other types of ministry), and have lots of female friends that are on a similar path as me and keep me encouraged.

-I’m a musician. My bachelor’s degree is in church music. I sing, play the piano (sidenote: I really hope you get that piano someday!), and the flute. I also have a slight working knowledge of several other instruments. I participate in my church’s choir and orchestra, where great music ministry happens every week.

-I’m a survivor. In my 23 years, I’ve been through a lot of crappy stuff, like my parents divorce, being viciously bulllied for 5 years and having my self esteem trampled on, to more recently, being kicked out of my previous apartment at 2 a.m.

-My favorite color is purple, I’ve loved it ever since I was in fifth grade. In my apartment, I have a purple comforter set on my bed, and all my towels are purple. I have so many purple shirts, I could wear a new one every day of the week. When I gave my senior voice recital, I wore a fabulous purple dress, and had my ushers and hostesses wore purple. I’m wearing purple as I type this! Whenever my friends see something in purple that they think I’d like, they tell me about it or just go ahead and get it for me.

-I have a loud laugh, and I laugh at almost everything! There have been times where I’ve been out with my friends, laughed really loud, and people would look at us. But what’s cool is that some of those people would come up to me and tell me they love my laugh. Oh, and when I get to laughing really hard, I snort, lol. One time, a friend of mine told me that my laugh should be recorded and put inside greeting cards.

-I have difficulty maintaining eye contact with people. I think it started while I was being bullied by people in elementary school. I have to work very hard to maintain eye contact with someone for more than a few seconds. I feel an incessant need to look away at a wall or down at the floor. This problem gets worse when I’m talking to someone I really respect and admire, like the music minister at my church.

-I love crime dramas! I got hooked on Law & Order the summer after my sophomore year of high school, and it’s progressed ever since. The shows I watch on a regular basis are Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU (my favorite!), CSI: Miami, CSI: NY, Without a Trace, and The Mentalist.

-I’ve had a crush on Matt Lauer since I was 12. He’s the reason why I’m such a news junkie. Speaking of news caster crushes, I also have a thing for Anderson Cooper. I also have a crush on Conan O’Brien. I know he’s not a news guy, but I thought I might as well throw that in too.

-I’m a night person; I’m at my most active and most creative in the late afternoon/evening.

-I love to read! I like deep thinky stuff like C.S. Lewis and St. Augustine of Hippo, fantasy stuff like The Lord of The Rings, and not so deep stuff like the Twilight series.

-My favorite eye color is blue. I myself have brown eyes, but I really hope my future husband has blue eyes.

-The first Broadway show I ever saw was The Phantom of The Opera. It was incredible!

-I like laying on my balcony late at night and listening to music.

-I am constantly tweaking with the music in my iTunes; adding and deleting music, and making new playliists.

-When I watch the news, I’m always checking out what the male newscasters are wearing. And I get really excited when they wear purple.

-I know Hebrew! Biblical Hebrew, that is (although it is pretty similar to modern day Hebrew). I’ve taken two semesters of it in seminary, and will be taking more. At some point I’ll also be learning Greek.

-A pair of jeans, a cute t-shirt, and flip flops (or my Chucks, depending on what time of year it is) is my favorite thing to wear. I also like tying a bandana around my head on occasion. I own lots bandanas in various colors, so I can cordinate with my outfits.