Wow. I had a long and thoughtful about me post written, so some of you could get to know the ‘not a girl, not yet a woman’ twirling around Chasing Spain. Apparently my draft was sucked into the black hole of the internet, which means it’s 9:00 p.m. here, and I’m starting from scratch.

If you are a loyal follower, occasional peruser, or new to my blog, then this list will give you a chance to know me a little bit better. I present to you 23 facts about 23-year-old me.

1. I am from South Florida ya’ll, but I grew up in Upstate New York. (I also don’t say ya’ll)

2. I despise wearing pants. Dresses and skirts all day, baby.

3. I speed read like nobody’s business. Every year I set a goal to read at least 100 books, which I usually hit or surpass. The Harry Potter series gets re-read annually.

4. Some people have a sweet tooth. I’m more of a salty gal myself. Give me all of the homemade popcorn with nutritional yeast goodness. If you haven’t had this topping before, do yourself a favor and try it!

5. I’m one of those people who will play a song over and over again while working out until it makes me sick to hear. Sometimes I ruin music for myself.

6. Somehow, I was a Division 1 high jumper in college. I competed four years and eight seasons on both the indoor and outdoor track & field team.

7.Now, running and I have a love/hate relationship. Mostly hate and avoidance though.

8. I wore a back brace part of my freshmen year of college because of said sport, and was referred to as ‘teenage mutant ninja turtle’ by my coach and back brace girl by my fellow students.

9. I don’t eat chicken. Hate/dislike doesn’t even come close to how I feel about chicken. I used to force myself to eat it because who in the world doesn’t eat chicken???? But I’m over that. That being said, I’m mostly vegetarian because a lot of meat weirds me out. Except a nice steak with all of the fat cut off 🙂

10. The Office. It’s my all-time favorite show. The U.S. version of course. I re-watch the series a couple times a year. More embarrassingly, I also re-watch Gossip Girl at least once a year. I’ve gotten my friends hooked on both.

11. I used to be pretty awkward. I still think I might be. Something about my gangly little body, previous inability to dance, and shyness perceived as weirdness created the perfect awkward person. Now, I embrace my inner weirdo.

12. I have a cute little cat named Binky back home, who used to sleep with me every night in middle and high school.

13. My boyfriend and I met in Spain, while we were both traveling, but he’s from Australia. I offered him a slice of watermelon and the rest is history.

14. Disorder drives me crazy. I like things to be clean and organized. My room always looks the same.

15. I have this peeve of not liking to smell like things or places. I think I’ve started to grow out of it, but I used to hate going into coffee or bagel shops because I didn’t want my hair to smell. Freshmen year I claimed that my hair smelled like dining hall after every meal.

16. I knocked my tooth out when I was 8 years old while luging down a hill. I was toothless more times than I can count this year as a result.

17. In the past year, I’ve traveled to 8 new countries (and some of them more than once) England, Ireland, France, Spain, Italy, Croatia, Switzerland, and Holland. Despite all this travel, I haven’t been to the West Coast of the U.S.A.

18. In the past two years, I’ve lived in Albany and Ithaca, N.Y., Spain, New York City, and England.

19. I will add Italy to that list soon. At the end of July I will au pair for a second time with a family in Italy. Last year, I was an au pair in Spain for two children and a wonderful family.

20. Growing older used to terrify me. I would cry every year on my birthday because I wanted to stay 13 forever….oh how the times have changed.

21. I set a goal to spend every birthday in a different country or new city.

22. I am an only child, so my friends are the siblings I never had…or wanted :P. I’m lucky to have a group of friends who make me feel like I’m surrounded by brothers and sisters.

23. I over think A LOT. I’m trying to go more with the flow and see where life takes me. I used to think that I needed to have everything planned out and follow a typical career/life path. Now, I realize that’s not the case, which helped me see and experience new people and places.