- In 2nd grade, I was the first student to memorize and recite the poem "18 Flavors" by Shel Silverstein. Pretty sure all I got was a ticket for a class drawing.
- In 4th grade I won my group's Oregon trail for us. We had 3 wagon teams and got various diseases and death, and then in order to actually survive and make it to Oregon (I guess) we just had to have the team leaders toss a bottle of white-out into a trashcan. I don't remember the logic behind this, but I remember the joy of winning.
- In 5th grade I won 2nd place in a track meet for the long jump. In 6th grade I did not even place hahaha. What happened that year??
- In 6th grade I won a contest for a short story I wrote.
- In 7th grade I made the middle school dance team. It was competitive!
- In 8th grade I made captain of the middle school dance team.
- In 8th grade I won 2nd place in the state of California for a science project on hummingbirds.
- In 9th grade I made the high school dance team.
- In 11th grade I was in show choir... really as a dancer and not as a singer. For one of our finals, we had to one-by-one go stand by the piano with the teacher, he would hit a few notes, and we would have to sing them back. He did a weird combination for me that included a high note that wasn't on the same scale as the rest. I got nervous and sat there silent when it came to that note. He said I could take my time. I must have stood there for 5 whole minutes completely silent, by this time the sound of the note out of my head, and I finally was like well I'd really like to go sit down now, better do something, and I actually hit the note! It was touching that he was just as excited about it as I was. My senior year I had to make a decision between show choir and AP French, and I chose AP French and guess what, I don't regret it at all, that was one of the best classes in my life. But I retain very fond memories of show choir.
- In 12th grade government class we had to divide into 3 groups for a long-term class project. Everyone wanted a good name for our group. The night before I had been watching The Chris Rock Show and he had a sketch called "Def Emergency Room Jam" (off of Mos Def's "Def Poetry Jam" if you didn't get it) so I suggested "Def Government Jam" and not only was it a hit, that group, and group name, became a LEGACY. I'm not joking, we all still talk about it, and I still consider it a shining memento on my social resume.
- College was one big shining array of academic, social and personal accomplishments, to be quite honest. I think I'll always remember getting an A in my French class that first quarter (I used to have regular anxiety before having to go to that class), setting the curve in my historical-comparative linguistics class with a perfect midterm, came up with the idea of me and my other 5 roommates dressing up as the characters from Clue for Halloween, and never throwing up from drinking too much. Also, sometimes my boyfriend at the time and I would be bored and we would just go crash house parties and make friends. That was fun too.
- I studied abroad for a year in college. That was a huuuuuge bucketlist.
- I took my first international trip completely solo in 2007. That was a goal that I had set for myself, was scared about, but did it and loved it.
- German police once had to detain me and run a background check on me as a suspicious persons because I was taking "too many" photos of the Amerika Haus. I hope to never be a suspicious person again, but feel proud it happened at least once.
- On a flight to Prague I taught myself formalities and how to count to 10 in Czech and successfully used them throughout the city.
- I got a studio by myself in Manhattan. I also moved twice all by myself within New York City.
- I actually met and shook hands with the inspiration of my life, Stephen T. Colbert!
- I visited the house used as 111 Archer Ave in The Royal Tenenbaums
- I almost ran a half marathon once. Trust me, given my affinity for running, that was an accomplishment in itself.
- I substitute taught French in my exact same high school French classroom. Talk about full circle!
What a random compiling, I don't even know why those things stood out. I'll bet that if I had put this list together on a different day, it would be an entirely different set of accomplishments! I do have a lot to be proud of in my life, and that is a great feeling.
