My friend(and BlogHer ’09 roomie) over at citystreams posted a meme that I thought was kind of fun. It’s not a typical form-type questionnaire; instead it’s made up of questions custom-written for you.  It all started from the Immoral Matirarch, but each person writes new questions for the next person.  After reading citystreams’, I decided to do it, too.

Here are the questions she posed to me and my responses. I’m not going to “tag” anybody, but if you want to do this just let me know! 🙂

 1. If you could go back in time and give yourself advice, what time period would you pick and what would you say to yourself?

I “skipped” my senior year of high school and went to a local college to finish my high school credits.  I don’t regret that at all.  What I do regret is that I didn’t take the opportunities I had to study abroad while I was there.  I was young and too scared to be away from home.  I’d like to go back and say to myself: “You are stronger and more capable than you think you are.  Give yourself a little more credit.  Believe in yourself.”

2. A rich uncle dies and specifies in his will that he wants to make a one million dollar donation to the charity of your choice in your honor. (You can’t be the charity! ;o) That’s all that he’s left you. Who would you give the money to and how would you feel about it?

I love, love, love to give to charities(sometimes to a fault, Marshall might say! :-)). But seriously I’d like to have enough money to pay off somebody’s hospital bill in full or tip a waitress $1000 or something like that.  But I’d rather it be anonymous, I think.  I’d love to hide and see the waitress’ face when she gets to the cash register or the guy’s face when he opens his hospital bill only to find a ZERO balance.  I’m a big fan of “random acts of kindness”! 

But picking a specific charity…that’s hard!  I’d really like to spread it around.  My home church could well benefit, as would our church in Augusta.  They are both mission-minded churches who are active locally and globally.  I’d also probably give to Heifer International, an organization that gives animals to people all over the world who are in need.  As the website states, Heifer helps “millions of impoverished families acquire and raise animals, and then…pass on the gift of their new skills and offspring to neighbors in need.”

Even if you don’t have million dollars, it’s still fun to pay for the meal of the car behind you at Zaxby’s or even do something simple like leave a snack and coke out for the mailman on a hot summer day. 

3. How has your faith changed since you were a college student?

The main difference between “the college me” and the “new me” is my kids.  Having kids, for me at least, gave me a fuller understanding of the love God has for all of his children.  Being a parent has taught me that no matter how many children you have, you love them all uniquely; that different children respond differently to the same situation; and that you can’t treat all of your children the same way.  Separate, but equal and all that jazz.

I believe that God really loves Joe Schmoe, Wang Lei Chei and Maneesh Sharma as much as he loves me.  Because he loves us all and because we are all unique and molded by our families and cultures, God will reach out to each of us in a different way-whichever way we will best be able to form a relationship with him.  I do believe that Jesus died on the cross to allow me to have direct, un-diluted contact with God, but I do not believe that Christianity is the only route to God.

I’m sure there are many people out there who could have stated this better than I just did.  Google it…I’m sure it’s out there somewhere!

4. What single thing do you hope to impart to your children?

These are really hard questions, citystreams!  I’m going all church-y again on my answer: Love.  Whether you’re “reglious” or not, I’m sure you’ve heard 1 Corinthians 13 at one wedding or another.  If we love the way we were created to love(or even a percentage of the way we were created to love), this world would be a much different place.  Imagine if we were never rude or self-centered, and always full of hope and perseverance(within our own life and the lives of others).  Imagine a world where the only raised voices were those of children playing and laughter, and where when you made a mistake people rushed to help you correct it instead of yelling, cursing or talking poorly of you.  As 1 Peter 4:8 would read if I’d translated the bible: If you don’t remember anything else, remeber to LOVE…because love is the cure for a lot of crap.

5. If you and Marshall ever decided to move out of the states, where do you think you would live and why?

This one’s easy for me…although I’m not sure about how Marshall would like it(I think he would): somewhere in Great Britain.  I went to London and some surrounding areas with my grandmother, Mama Jo, when I was 16.  It was amazing, and I fell head-over-heels in love with it then.  (London was one of the study-abroad opportunities I had and didn’t take.)  I’d love to go live somewhere far enough from a city that you can see stars in the dark night sky, yet close enough to get some good shopping!  🙂