whereami; whoami wah wah wahhh (a la kierkegaard)

Things I like about myself:

1. I have this little knack for languages. I love tasting their various flavors and feeling their different textures on my tongue and repeat things over and over and overandoveroenen in the shower, in the car, in my head because I get addicted to them and in this way, I learn.
2. I apologize for things like a spineless little puppy if I know that I am in the wrong. Okay sometimes it's more like an old, stubborn dog sighing an apology sorrrta reluctantly but in the end I do it. UGH.
3. I strike up conversations with strangers because I think it's beautiful and fun and fleeting in a nice way. I think this is courageous. I'll never run away from a stranger with a witty conversation opener, but will usually neevvverrr know if it's a pick-up line until WAY after the fact. Oops.
4. I like writing papers. mmmmm. Sometimes I get unexpectedly good grades on them, almost like magic. I'll typetypetypetytpe out a paper in the fi!nal! coundownnnn hours not really sure what I am typing, or, or, I'll write out allllllll these things not really sure where it's all going, but once the paper is finished and I turn it in, unable to read it over for wanting to hurl (from the speed, from the overdose of words), but then I'll get it back later and then even later I'll re-read it and think, "hey self...woah you ;) "
5. I have nice eyebrows, and am very good at curling my eyelashes. 
6. I can conceptualize most things easily, so I can have conversations about lots of different things I don't truly understand the details of and honestly follow along, convincingly nodding and mmhmm-ing. Re-explaining these things in my own words is another thing altogether, but still.
7. Sometimes I am expressive in a cute way that lots of people don't know. Weirdly, this girl named Sareum, who really doesn't know me that well, gets it. If she ever reads this, though, she might be confused.
8. I quit facebook like an alcoholic who just went cold-turkey and haven't ever really wanted to go back. Not that this is something to be paaaaaaarticularly proud of, but it makes me pursue deeper relationships through email and skype, and I like this.
9. I am a weak, weak, weaklingy small girl in a big big world, and for this I am grateful, for

"he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me." 2 Cor 12:9

an incomplete and unedited list in no particular order except the one it came in, pop pop pop to my mind. 

"After you!"

There are friends who are always opening doors for you and waiting for you to step in first and then there are friends who you're always opening doors for. I don't know what makes this difference, or if it even means anything significant, but it's just something I've noticed.

Some people are infinitely patient with me, and others somehow make me uncharacteristically patient with them. I am honestly not that patient - my sister can tell you the best - and I get easily annoyed by little things if they somehow seem unjust or selfish or whatever bad trait of my own I'm seeing in other people that day, I guess. Then, once I've pin-pointed some "bad" thing about one person, it's gets progressively easier to keep finding examples of that flaw and generalizing so this person becomes "the friend who only texts me when she needs something" and that person becomes "the girl who never opens the door first when we go places so it's a little awkward for a moment at every door if I've forgotten to actively go for the handle." I guess a little resentment goes with each of these labels, right?

But I don't know - with some people, somehow these labels exist with no bad feeling. Or no bad feeling that isn't easily overcome, easily forgiven. Maybe it's because I feel a certain level of karmic powers at work - a sense of what goes around comes around kind of a thing, cause there are definitely people in my life who always open the door first...Haha, if this is really the reason for my own uncharacteristic patience for others, I hope we never run out of enthusiasm for door-opening. And also hope I'm that-girl-who-always-opens-the-door-first-inspiring-better-behavior-to-others kind of a person for YOU or somebody someday!

seemingly unrelated, but this was the fourth picture for the google images search "opening doors for others"