Two weeks ago, I invited those who were interested to ask me any question they liked, with the promise of an honest answer, provided that the question wasn’t asking me my street address or Social Security number. There were some great questions asked, and while these answers are a week late, I hope they still prove to be interesting!

No question of the week this week, but I do have many answered questions to make up for it:

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Cross-posted from breakthesky.net. Please leave any comments there.

I never really experienced rites of passage that people typically do throughout childhood and adolescence. I had an unusual upbringing in the sense that I was consistently uprooted due to a number of overseas moves, which led to my general lack of knowledge/interest about these “traditional” rites of passage.

Here are a handful high school rites of passages I never experienced:

• Graduating from primary/middle school in order to enter high school
  I left my first middle school in the US at the end of sixth grade, which meant I missed out on the eighth grade graduation. At my new school in Australia, students graduated from primary school in year six and not year seven. I transferred to my Australian school at the beginning of year seven, so I had just missed out on graduation. The first time I ever graduated from anything was when I completed high school!
• Sweet sixteen birthday party
  My sixteenth birthday was a quiet and lonely affair. I had just moved to Chicago from Australia, and I didn’t know anyone in Chicago besides my immediate family. My sixteenth birthday “party” was comprised of myself, my mother, my brother, and a chocolate cake. It was nice, but definitely not the sweet sixteen bash many kids expect on their sixteenth birthdays.
• Driver’s license at sixteen
  I didn’t get my driver’s license at sixteen. Honestly, I was never bothered by this, I managed just fine without one. Besides, I think sixteen is too young to drive; the thought of the sixteen year olds I know on the roads scares me.
• Getting my first car
  This ties in with the whole driver’s license thing, for obvious reasons. However, I also have zero interest in getting a car of my own. The area I live in has good public transportation, and where I go to for college has excellent public transport. Ideally I’d like to live in a city like London, Paris, or Hong Kong after I graduate from college, all of which have phenomenal public transport and there is no need for a car. I don’t want to deal with car payments, insurance, maintenance, gas… it’s all money I’d rather not spend on something I don’t see as needing.
• Getting my first job
  Unlike most teenagers, I didn’t get my first job in high school. I was on a student visa in Australia so I legally was not allowed to work, and then my final two years of high school took so much time and energy out of me that I didn’t even want to think about a job. (I don’t count babysitting gigs as an “official” job.) I did get a job at college though, it just took me a little longer than most of my classmates to get the ball rolling on the job front.

Cross-posted from breakthesky.net. Please leave any comments there.

Readers who want to ask me any question and have it answered can comment on this post. I’ll be answering all questions on October 18!

The lovely Krissy has given me the Beautiful and Gorgeous Blogger Award. Similar to the Kreativ Blogger Award, I have to list 7 things people might find interesting and pass the award along to 7 bloggers¹. So, here we go!

7 Things People (May or May Not) Find Interesting

• I have a fear of being submerged in water. I dislike going to swimming pools, beaches, and taking baths as a result. I don’t even like hot tubs all that much!
• I dressed up as Sarah Palin last year for Halloween. My friend went as a pregnant Bristol Palin, using a towel tucked underneath her shirt to show a “baby bump.” Since we went trick-or-treating along Embassy Row in Washington, DC, there were some very interesting reactions to our costumes!
• My three favorite chocolate things are: Toblerone, Kinder, and Tim Tams. Give me any of those three and I’ll be a happy camper. And if you give me all of them, you might just be my favorite person forever.
• I have never had my hair highlighted or colored, and I don’t really see either happening in my future.
• I live in dorm housing on my school’s campus. I don’t mind it all that much except for times when neighbors are currently having very loud sex… like they are now.
• I’m allergic to 99% of all types of sunscreen.
• I have hyper-extended knees and elbows.

7 Blogs I Find Interesting²

• Alice @ Only Anne
• Amanda @ Jingwen
• Clem @ Oh Clementine
• Kaylee @ Reliquesce
• Meg @ Mekana
• Melody @ Bittersky
• Nadine @ Nadinerine

1. Pretend today is the Friday Seven instead of the usual Friday Five. [↩]
2. This list does not include Krissy as she is the one that gave me this award, but I do find her blog very interesting! [↩]

Cross-posted from breakthesky.net. Please leave any comments there.

I’ve always been intrigued to see what other bloggers get asked by their readers when they have an “Ask me a question and I’ll answer” type entry. Caity did one, and I know Amanda did one a while back too¹ I don’t get all that personal in this blog, but I have been interviewed by Alice as well as Clem. The questions they asked could possibly be questions that others would like to ask me, or at least in a similar vein. I wouldn’t know what others are curious about – I know everything there is to know about myself, obviously

Anyway. This is an opportunity for you to ask me any question(s) you’d like and receive an open, honest answer (within reason, of course – I’m up for answering pretty much anything but I’m not going to go reveal my Social Security number or anything like that!). All questions I get asked will be answered in next Sunday’s post. I’ve never done this before so it might be a bust, but we’ll see how it goes.

Question of the Week: If you could ask me any question(s) and have it answered, what would it be?

1. I am sure there are other bloggers who have done this type of post but I can’t recall any others off the top of my head. [↩]

Cross-posted from breakthesky.net. Please leave any comments there.

These are five questions Clem asked me to answer a very, very long time ago. Even though these replies are late, I figure it’s better late than never, right?

• If you could live anywhere for the rest of your life, where would it be?
  Without a doubt, Hong Kong. It is my absolute favorite place in the world, and the one place I feel 100% comfortable in calling home. I’ve moved around a lot and spent a fair portion of my life growing up overseas, but Hong Kong is where I was born and it’s where home is for me.
• When you were younger, what did you want to be?
  What didn’t I want to be is probably the easier question! When it comes to career aspirations, it’s very much a “you name it, I’ve wanted to be it” type deal. I think the ones I stuck with for the longest was a translator/interpreter and a writer.
• What’s the last nice thing that happened to you?
  A lot of nice things have happened to me recently, which is a huge change from the run of bad experiences I had last month. I think the one that stands out the most is just knowing that I mean a lot to someone special. Ever since there’s been some drama in my circle of friends, it’s nice to know that there’s still someone that values me in their life.
• What was your worst subject in high school?
  Without a doubt, math. I’ve always been a good student, but math was always the class that very nearly killed me. It was always the class that threatened to lower my GPA and was the one I agonized over for hours. It was also the only class I ever needed a tutor for!
• How often do you check your email?
  I check it obsessive compulsively! I use the Gmail Notifier plugin for Firefox, so whenever I get a new email I get a notification and check my inbox immediately. I also have an iPhone, so I have constant access to my email 24/7. Maintaining a constant connection with your email inbox is not always a good thing, though…

Cross-posted from breakthesky.net. Please leave any comments there.