10 Day You Challenge.

When I saw PB Fingers doing this challenge, I was immediately intrigued for a mini blog series. After my exciting Europe posts, this might give my blog a little something extra to ease back into normal-life posts.

"10 secrets" is definitely a toughie to start off with... I'm not sure all of these are secrets per say but they are things I don't talk about a lot and that people may not know!

1. I used to be a "ballerina." Yep, before my life of lots of rowing and eventually running, I was a dancer! When I tell people this usually they are surprised at first and then they say, "I can picture that." I couldn't dig up any good pictures but I did find this one of my legs and toe shoes... I know it's a crummy photo but you get the idea. I'm sure you can all recognize my knobby knees :)

2. I'm not a native Clevelander. I have a California birth certificate! I was born in Los Angeles, where I lived with my parents for my first two years of life. My mom lived in Cali for over 30 YEARS before moving to Cleveland with me and my dad for his work and to be closer to family. Even though I didn't grow up in California, we spent many summers in Northern California where my grandparents lived and I have some of my favorite memories from there. I've traveled the world, and I still think San Francisco is my favorite place. 

The beach and mountainous views at the end of the Tennessee Valley trail.

3. Once I owned pet GERBILS! Sometimes even I forget this about myself. I definitely sort of fear rodents now, but when I was 12 I got to keep the two class pet gerbils! I loved them until they turned crazy and tried to kill each other. 

4. I love to sail. On the other side of the country, my other favorite place growing up was in Rockhall, Maryland which was right on the Chesapeake. My paternal grandparents had a home there, and I have some amazing memories of fishing, sailing, going to the beach, long bike rides along the bay, ice cream cones, crab catching, swimming in the neighbors pool, and pie with fresh cherries from the backyard. Sailing was a huge activity for us there and I loved any chance I got to learn how:

Grandpa, of course, was always right near by :)

5. I used to have a big brown dog. Yes, from ages 7-16 Sam was one of my best companions. I don't think I've ever met a sweeter, more loving dog, and I think about him every day. Even when I was in Europe, he would come to mind and I would think about how he always was there to greet me when I came home from school, loved swimming at the Metro Parks, and adored attention. He was a huge goof ball and could always lighten the mood when the goings were tough. Whenever someone would come to the door, he would frighten them with his big, deep bark and then when they came in, he would promptly drop to the ground and roll over to be pet :) We miss him so much!

6. I love to climb. I hate heights, but climbing is one of my favorite activities. When I was 7, someone had their birthday party at the Cleveland Rock Gym and I was the first one to scale the wall. Ever since, it's been something I love doing! I would love to climb real rocks one day (not sure how that will fit into my schedule :)

7. My hair hasn't always been this curly... Nope, I was born with straight (ish) hair! The curly gene didn't kick in until I was just about 12-13, and I feel like I'm still getting used to it!

8. I play an instrument. From ages 10-15, I was in the band! I play the flute, and continue to play whenever I'm home from school (it doesn't come to Oxford with me). Being able to read music is one of my favorite skills, because it makes it so much easier to pick up any other instrument! Thanks to this skill, I can also play a few songs on the keyboard/piano, and thanks to my wind instrument knowledge, I can pick up a saxophone, clarinet, or piccolo and play it almost as easily as the flute! I definitely plan to make my kids one day learn to play instruments, I think it's an important life skill.

9. My eyeballs are heterochromatic. Who knew that this phenomenon had a name!  This is a cool little fact that most of my family doesn't even know. "Heterochromia" is when one of your irises has a different in coloration. For me, it's my left eye (but my webcam flips everything to be mirror image so in this photo it looks like my right eye). My eyes are blue-grey but part of my left iris is hazel!

10. I donated my hair. This is another thing that's hard for me to believe about myself... but one day about a year ago I went from this :

to this:

All because I felt I was so lucky to have lovely hair and couldn't imagine what it would feel like not to have any, all while battling for your life at the same time. Donating my hair was something that was on my bucket list and I'm so glad I did it. 

The next part of the challenge will be my "9 loves..." stay tuned!