Very recently, one of the nicest things that has ever happened to me, happened. I was in my room packing for my trip to Indiana (i.e., laying on my bed, realizing I only own one pair of matching socks), when I received a text from one of my favorite humans, Andy Meyer.
Andy is two years younger than me to the day and we became friends when, in elementary school, my brother’s went to his house for their first-ever playdate and Andy’s younger brother, Paul, broke his arm within the first half hour of the get-together. Thus, this led to Andy coming to our house while his mom spent the afternoon with Paul in the hospital and really, our family’s have been blurred to the point of inseparable ever since.
Andy text me to tell me that he was actually laughing out loud reading my blog, imagining my mother taking our cat into the vet to see if she had been sexually assaulted (literally, a real thing that happened). Then, after telling me about KanyeWesAnderson, which is the best thing that’s ever been on the Internet, he told me that he’d nominated me on his own blog for something called The Liebster Award.
I didn't know what that was, but I do know how to use Google and basically, here is what I determined it was:
You post the award on your blog.
You thank the blogger who presented the award and then link back to their blog.
You write 11 facts about yourself.
You nominate bloggers that you feel deserve this award.
You answer 11 questions posted by the presenter, then ask your nominees 11 questions.
Generally, I don’t post stuff like this on my blog because most of my posts are about all the uncomfortable life moments I have, but I decided to do this because I was absolutely honored that Andy thought to give me a shout-out on his blog, which you can view right here (step two complete, yo!). Also, listing 11 facts/answering 11 questions about myself and posting them to the Internet reminds me so much of my early, angsty Myspace days when I would write ridiculously long quiz answers on the “Bulletin” feature and always reference this Garden State GIF to describe my life.
I had a lot of angst, guys, it's fine.
Instead of being a normal person and naming this blog post "The Leibster Award," I decided to stay within my forever-arching theme of using Kanye West lyrics to describe my life. Also, it is because every one of the people I nominated would totally win an actual award for having an obscene amount of cheese.*
*Please note that when I say "cheese," I am not referencing the slang term for money. I am for sure talking about actual, edible cheese. It's a weird coincidence that all of these bloggers really, really love cheese.
// So, Here Are Some Blogs I've Nominated //
Zach Groth — Neither of us remember how we became friends, but the likelihood of that friendship being solidified in either the Holden Center or Dill Street is pretty high. I figure that in college, you make friends that you’ll stay in contact with after graduation and you’ll also meet people that will kind of fade in and out of your life. Then, you’ll make friends like Zach, who text you graphically personal life details multiple times a day and show up on your doorstep at Thanksgiving. Zach just moved to New York City and still doesn’t have a place to live, but he does have a blog and an amazing knack for getting himself into ridiculous situations. His writing is so funny that it actually makes me irrationally mad at him for being a better blogger than I am.
Kate Wilhelm — Kate was my college roommate for two years, a creative writing major and someone who, when I once told her a story about an interaction I'd had with an old boyfriend, described my life as being "one giant awkward moment." Kate also never let me read any of her work until one night, at 2 a.m., she decided to make a blog and her post literally made me cry when I read it in the Ball Bearings office. I thought that maybe it had made me cry because it was 2 a.m. and I was suffering design delusions, but nope, I read it again the next day and cried yet again. Kate is such a talented writer and a pretty great person and I guarantee you will relate to and fall in love with her writing.
Adriana Howell — I met Adriana when I was her Pi Chi, a fancy Greek word meaning that I had disaffiliated from my chapter to be a counselor to girls going through recruitment. The most important part about being a Pi Chi is to have a completely unbiased view toward all the chapters and make sure that you don’t push any of the girls to join your chapter just because you think they are awesome and great and perfect. Spoiler alert: I thought Adriana was awesome and great and perfect. It took every ounce of will power I had to not tell her how much I wanted her to be a Kappa Delta. We didn’t end up being sisters, but we did end up being friends and I absolutely adore her blog posts because I absolutely adore her.
// So, Here Are 11 Facts About Myself //
Last Thursday, I scratched my cornea from brushing my hair. Yeah. That can happen.
Whenever I get on or off a plane, I like to touch the outside of it because it’s been so high up in the air and I think that’s neat.
Also, whenever I get off a plane, I listen to “Robbers” while I walk down the aisle. I have no reason for this although, unrelated, I was doing this exact activity last Friday and accidentally dropped my entire bag of grapes one-by-one down the runway.
When I go out with my friend Kelci, we pick out who each of us thinks is the most attractive person in the bar. Then, before the night is over, we go up to them and thank them for existing. It is highly effective. People love to know that other people love for them to exist.
My glasses sit slightly crooked on my face because they fell off when I was working out and got stuck in an elliptical. For unknown reasons, people seem to think this is the most delightful story instead of seeing how horrifyingly embarrassing of an event it truly was.
I unbashfully want to be Instagram famous, but self-sabotage this goal by actively refusing to use hashtags.
On Monday at work, we had a deadline disaster. When I was talking to my boss about it today, he commented on how calm I was during the entire process. I told him that it's because I'm laid back and I'm laid back because I grew up in Idaho.
I also believe this is the reason I hate to wear shoes.
It’s physically impossible for me to put my hair into a ponytail that is not on the side of my head.
According to my friend Ross, I am an extremely trustworthy human. He told me that I was one of his top five favorite people (next to Steve Jobs) and, to prove this was in fact true, he then proceeded to tell me his social security number. Five times.
When I was in middle school, we were having a Halloween party and I let someone dressed in costume into our home because I thought it was my friend Kendra's dad. After interacting with the man for forty-five minutes, everyone at the party came to the realization that he was not Kendra's dad. Really, he was a drunk stranger and the mummified cat he was holding was not a prop. It was, indeed, actually a mummified cat.
// So, I'm Supposed to Ask Some Questions //
What are three things that made you smile in the past week?
What song makes you sing really loudly in the car? // I'm asking, but I already know that this is "Animals" by Maroon 5 for Zach because in the span of one weekend, we drove at least three-and-a-half hours together and we had to have listened to that song 45% of the time.
What's the best app you have on your phone?
What's the first thing you notice about a new person?
What's the nicest thing someone has ever said to you?
On average, how accurate do you really think Buzzfeed quizzes are? // I'm asking because I took a quiz called "Hipster or Basic" and I was not pleased with my results.
Why do you blog about the things that you blog about?
What's your first memory?
What's the worst haircut you've ever had? // I'm asking because I got my bangs cut at Walmart junior year of college and I need reassurance that I wasn't the only one who had a bad haircut that late in life.
Kanye West lyric -- go.
What's your favorite corny joke? // I'm asking because I really, really love corny jokes.
// So, Here's The Questions Andy Asked Me //
What song is stuck in your head right now // Don’t worry, everyone — after KanyeWesAnderson, I found the second-best thing on the Internet and it is The 1975’s cover of One Direction’s “What Makes You Beautiful.” Embarrassingly, but not surprisingly, I actually experienced physical pain the first time I watched this video of the song.
Have you had any creative breakthroughs lately? What are they? // Currently, I work at The Boston Globe and I really, really love my job. I’m constantly surrounded by talented designers and journalists to the point that I’m actually always intimidated. It’s scary to be the youngest person in a room with people who are so experienced and just bursting with raw talent, but going into my fifth month here, I’ve learned that my best work has come from pushing myself to be at that level. Clearly, I am nowhere near there yet, but I think that all my creative “Ah-ha!” moments have come from thinking with that mindset.
Who/what do you draw your inspiration from? // Besides drawing inspiration from the immensely talented staff at The Globe, I definitely look up to all the people I’ve met through professional experiences, whether that be the staff of the Chicago Tribune that I worked with during BSU at the Games or various professionals that I’ve met at SND conferences or just my professors from Ball State. I’ve really gained a lot of insight from every person I’ve interacted with in the design world and I’m truly trying to take the things they’ve taught me into my own work. Also, I just want it to be noted that my boss and I spent an entire afternoon this week looking up photos of Spongebob and photoshopping legs onto Ritz cracker boxes and it was considered a design emergency. I love my job.
What’s the one unique thing you have on your bucket list? // I’ve always wanted to visit every place that is also a song title on Bon Iver’s self-titled album, but I’m torn because I also feel like that would be an extremely emotional vacation and also, I hate driving.
What’s something most people don’t know about you? // I have a very real, very immediate and very irrational fear of ketchup. All condiments in general really gross me out, so my three month stint as a Sandwich Artist at Subway when I was sixteen was quite an accomplished feat, but to the rightful confusion of most people I’ve ever met, ketchup is really what sends me over the edge of horror. A few weeks ago, I was in Cambridge having lunch with my brother’s and got ketchup in my hair, on my face and all over my clothes. It was my actual nightmare. Conversely, I once went on a date with one of the coolest guys I’ve ever met and as he was dropping me off, the conversation somehow naturally steered toward the fact that he too was afraid of ketchup. I briefly considered proposing to him before remembering that I had to catch a flight back to Boston in a mere two hours and also, this was only our third conversation. That’s how real the fear is.
If you could be anywhere right now, where would it be? // I spent this past weekend watching two of my greatest friends, Tyler and Amanda, get married in Fort Wayne, Indiana, surrounded by all my favorite people. It was a perfect, beautiful weekend and, as much as I am absolutely in love with my life in Boston, it was very hard for me to leave them and Indiana for the last time.
What’s next in your life? What do you foresee yourself doing in the near future? // My job at the Globe ends in December and I have no idea what my plans are for after that. And, honestly, that’s horrifying. I’ve always had some sort of plan mapped out and ready to go, but as of now, I don’t have anything lined up. Eventually, though, I will. I could be working in editorial design or a creative communications firm or even taking up a permanent residence in Urban Outfitters and discovering how real hipsters dress. Either way, I know that the anxiety I’m feeling now with someday pass and I will once again have a path, a career and another reason to drink copious amounts of coffee all day.
Why do you do the (creative) work that you do? // I’ve had the unique experience of being enveloped within multiple facets of design and while the product and concepts between layout, information graphics and pr design are completely different, the underlying fact is that I love making information beautiful and accessible.
Who’s your favorite author? // From the time I was much too young to actually grasp the content of his books, Wally Lamb solidified himself as my favorite author. I read “I Know This Much Is True” when I was in 5th grade and I’ve literally read it at least once every year since then. As for non-fiction works, David Sedaris will always be able to make me laugh no matter what the content. A few weeks ago, our whole family went to hear him do a reading in Boston and he told the funniest/only sex joke about grandmother’s I’ve ever heard, so really, all of his stories are hilarious.
Say we make every planet in our solar system habitable. What planet would you live on? // Whichever one Zayn Malik was on. Seriously.
Think of a happy memory. What is it? // I lived in the same house in Muncie for two years and, although I have absolutely no idea where it came from, we had a very old porch swing outside our door. A lot of things happened for me on that porch swing -- it was where I got a first kiss from a friend I really, really liked. It was where I sat for an hour, crying, on my first night back in town my junior year because I realized all my best friend's had graduated and I had no one to appreciate The Chug with anymore. It's where I sat to drink a beer or sing outside with my roommates or even get asked questions by the camera man whom my landlord felt was necessary to bring to our home in the middle of the day. Most importantly, though, that bench was the first place I went after finding out that I had been hired at the Globe. That day was a beautiful day and before I even went inside my house, I laid outside on the bench, swinging back and forth, looking up at the clouds changing in the sky and just feeling a lot of proud, good, accomplished feelings. It sounds super cheesy (this is the "I'll Just Take the 'I-Got-A-Lot-Of-Cheese' Award" blog post, after all!), but I distinctly remember thinking "This is it -- this is the happiest I have ever been."
Well, that's it, everyone. Thank you, Andy, for nominating me and giving me an excuse to pretend like Myspace is still cool again and that Garden State references are still relevant.