Challenge

Dave Hingsburger, whose blog I read daily, passed along a challenge today. It goes like this: describe yourself with five adjectives. Go ahead, do it right now. How does your gut describe you before your brain starts analyzing? Here are my five:

Tired. The boss of me (AKA Emma) has been waking at night, and getting up at the butt-crack of dawn for weeks now. Tired has become so deeply engrained in my persona that I don't think I'll ever extricate it.

Passionate. I rarely do anything half-assed (unless it's a household chore!). I'm a passionate advocate for my daughter and others with intellectual disabilities. I'm passionate about cooking, gardening, reading, and my family. Try not to mess with me or the people I care about, because passionate quickly becomes fierce. That could get ugly.

Welcoming. People like to talk to me, and I'll talk to anyone. I love hearing their stories, and learning about what makes them unique. It's amazing what you can find out when you just listen - when we were in Boston this summer, I spent half an hour talking to a woman in her 70s about her children and grandchildren. Turned out one of her daughters has a pretty severe learning disability, and back in the late 60s, she fought for her daughter's right to an education and won. Without that welcoming part of me, I would have never known I was talking to one of the moms whose shoulders I stand on every time I advocate for Emma's education.

Optimistic. I am without a doubt a glass-half-full gal. I've been called Pollyanna many times. I just happen to truly believe that things happen for a reason, and they're going to work out the way they're supposed to. I'm not religious, I'm not sure if there's some plan in place, I just believe everything's going to be okay. This belief has gotten me through some tough times.

Control freak. Yes, I know, that's two words. And I could just call myself freak, but that wouldn't have the visceral impact of "control freak." You all know someone like me - the person who can't let go of any detail, who insists that things be done a certain way, who gets seriously stressed when something is "wrong." When my meds are working, this control thing is less of an issue, but what can I say - my doctors and I are playing med roulette to find one that will work properly, and my inner control freak is currently front and center.

So what were your five words? One of the questions around this challenge is whether people will describe themselves with words like gay, disabled, white, black, man, or woman. Did you? Leave me a comment and let me know, or a link to your blog if you write about this.