I've noticed through this year of getting over the hurdle of transition that my new friends don't know a lot about me. I've also noticed that maybe some life events slipped through the cracks of people who I've known for most of my life. Regardless of where we have met on the journey of life, this seems like a time for storytelling and sharing as I love to do.
25 sounds like a solid number and a solid age. Nothing big happens as a new rite of metaphorical or legal passage at this age, but it seemingly signifies getting past the unsettled struggles of early 20s and entering late 20s where life is hopefully more consistent. I'm officially a 20-something if I have spent half of this "something" in the decade, right?
I grew up in the era of MySpace but didn't have an account, so I missed a lot of those early social media days. I do remember in the stone age of Facebook (or The Face Book if you've been online for a while) when people would share "# Facts About Me," so here are 25 facts about me for my 25th birthday!
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| Aww, look at how cute little KT was. Blonde, awkward, and cute. |
1. I'm a big fan of pink and gray. Everything. Clothes, organizational supplies, nail polish, all of it. Give me all of the pink and gray in the world. You know, on Wednesdays, we wear pink.
2. But, I'm really bad at matching my clothes. I have tried to go toward stripes and solids of neutrals over the past few years, but sometimes random articles of pink clothes still pop up in my wardrobe. I think I missed a fully-formed fashion gene.
3. I have two siblings. My brother and I have many dissimilarities, yet my sister and I have much that we have grown to love together over the years. She's a super rad teenager, and I want to be as individualized as she is.
4. Ok, I left out a little information. I have three siblings, but my youngest brother is no longer with us. I don't talk about Kyle often; he was born in November of 1999 and lived for 33 days. His life and death have made a significant impact on my family, and I don't think it's true that time heals all wounds because the grief is still there after nearly twenty years.
5. I could eat a diet consistent of vegetables and fruit all day every day until I remember how much I love candy and chips and then I'm screwed. So, I balance a salad with an entire box of Junior Mints. Healthy, ya know.
6. I was a cheerleader in junior high. Most people know me as the not sporty, musical theatre nerd which is totally true, though I lived four years of my life as a cheerleader (after a decade of being obsessed with cheerleaders before joining a team). I competed for three of those years, and I was proud to be on the first team from my school to ever qualify for state competition. I think I most liked that it was a performance that could be judged, and I'm nothing if not someone who strives for high achievement.
7. I went through a phase in high school when I was obsessed with Lady Gaga. I know this isn't *super original* for someone who is in my age range, but I studied her work for a year as I was creating a performance competition piece. Because I like winning and I love Gaga. I later saw her in concert which was a weirdly awesome experience.
8. And yet, I'm not much of a concert person. I think it takes too much involvement, and I love sitting quietly and not showing that I'm into the music that I'm hearing. Give me a cold, dark theatre and tell me to be quiet for three hours, and I'm good. Put me outside at an event where people are standing for two hours, and I'm miserable.
9. I was obsessed with social media. I got to college and figured out that I could major in mass communication which would allow me to work in the realm of social media content and marketing, and I loved the creativity aspect of it.
10. I graduated college at 20 years old. I know, I'm like one of those braniac weirdo freaks. Except probably not really. I took a lot of dual credit classes in high school to receive both HS and community college credit, and I graduated high school with something like 50 college credit hours. I went to a community college (for free!) for a year to finish my Associate of Arts before transferring to a university.
I started out as an education major and briefly changed to a theatre major before settling on mass communication with an emphasis in multimedia journalism with a minor in literature. And finishing at the university only took a year and a half, so I graduated with my Bachelor of Science two and half years after high school. I love the idea of a dual credit system, but I question how this early entry into adulthood and not taking the time to be a teenager has affected my life.
11. In that brief time that I was kind of a theater major, I applied to Columbia College Chicago. I was questioning everything as I wrapped up my time at the community college, and an instructor / friend suggested for me to follow what he saw as what I was most passionate about. I decided not to go (because I was hard-core scared about moving far away from what I knew...ha!), but I'm forever thankful that he encouraged me to try something and to allow myself to know what it is like to go for what I want. I used to wonder a lot about how different my life would be if I would have followed that path; now, I think I'm taking an alternate version of that experience.
12. I've had a lot of random jobs over the years. Positions / titles I have held:
-High School Beta Club Sponsor, an academic, service, and leadership organization (As my favorite job ever, this included unofficial titles such as director and choreographer, composer and guitar-tuner, pretend drummer and under-skilled singer, hair stylist and makeup artist, mentor and big-sister-type-of-friend, judge and coordinator, service project supervisor and painting overseer, ice cream eater and pizza purchaser, confidant and empowerer)
-High School Drama Club Director
-High School Substitute Teacher
-Journalist writing on local arts
-Sales Associate at a shoe store
-Dance Captain for community theatre
-Secretary / Legal Assistant at a law and accounting firm (that my parents own)
-ACT Prep Instructor
-Radio DJ at a Top 40 pop station
-Photographer at a car dealership (technically, I was a Merchandising Specialist, but I'm not sure that name means a lot. I was basically a photographer)
-Administrative Assistant at an insurance office (my title there was Director of First Impressions which also feels weird to me)
-Research Assistant, Graduate Assistant, and Student Worker at Drew
I feel like I'm missing something. I guess it doesn't really matter. My point is that I've had a lot of random jobs, and people look at me quizzically when I mention a past title that is very different from other past titles of which I have spoken. Getting a lot of jobs that don't pay fair wages was apparently a thing I liked to do for a few years.
13. Oh, and I ran a non-profit parachurch organization before I turned 24. For free. Because I like volunteering and sometimes I immerse myself in environments and get elected as the lay leader of a community-wide biannual youth camp and then people realize that they have trusted a young 20-something to lead everything.
I'm proud of how I worked to modernize our community communication via social media and texting, to improve our background check system, and to collect a group of leaders who were all friendly in making difficult decisions that could otherwise be divisive. I would have made a million different decisions looking back because it sometimes seems like I put bandaids on gaping wounds, but I hope that my time with the organization was beneficial. I hate to be selfish, though it was certainly formational in my journey as a young lay leader to become one who is studying at a theological school that would qualify me to be considered a clergyperson if I would choose that route.
14. I have a guilty pleasure: BuzzFeed. Most people see Tasty videos in their Facebook timelines and scroll past, but my love for BuzzFeed goes much more deep. I am a regular quiz-taker (because I obviously need to find out which Disney princess I am if I pick my favorite candy and color), I frequently watch videos on all of BuzzFeed's YouTube channels, and I follow some of BuzzFeed's writers and video content creators on social media. And now you know a thing about me that should probably be a little embarrassing.
15. Something that is not embarrassing: I have a tv show logo forever imprinted on my body. I also have a theatre-themed tattoo that is a permanent placement. You're either on one end of the spectrum by saying, "Whoa, Kirsten Trambley has tattoos?!" or "You still only have two tattoos?" Yes and yes.
I got my first tattoo on my lower stomach in January of 2013, and people I know were split down the middle between impressed and feeling disdainful. I have an infinity symbol (so basic, I know) with theatre masks inside, and infinity has "love dream believe achieve" in it. In August of 2014, I got the Glee logo with two music notes on my foot. Glee has quite literally changed my life in so many ways, but this isn't really new or surprising information to most people. Fun fact: I got both of my tattoos on the 4th of each month, so now I'm convinced that I can only get tattoos on the 4th.
16. I struggle with mental health. So, I go to therapy which has been really helpful. I have super supportive friends who have been mental health advocates and who have encouraged me through the struggle. I'm honestly a believer that most people should go to counseling just for life maintenance, but ya know we're all on different journeys and I'm not forcing anyone into stuff.
17. I don't drink coffee (because I think it tastes gross) or soda (because I think it does gross stuff to one's body). I was a soda drinker until July of 2008 when I was told that dark soda makes formaldehyde in the stomach. I cut dark soda a month later and then stopped all soda in February of 2009. Sometimes I still crave Dr. Pepper or Coke, but my personal commitment / will power / choice against soda is something that I'm proud of.
18. When I harnessed this power against soda, I decided I would systematically cut out other unhealthy things. So, I started with potatoes and el oh el that must have been a joke that I tried to play on myself because Potatoes. Are. Life.
19. I don't really talk in class very much in theo school. It probably confuses people because I talk a lot and am rather social (with colleagues and professors) outside of class. I think it has a lot to do with anxiety (feeling in the spotlight in the moment), past understandings (often second-guessing myself because I've gone through an upheaval of beliefs over my life), and more anxiety (because that crap just doesn't go away). Some colleagues think I should be more confident - and that is valid and I am working on it - but I am also an internal processor, and external words aren't necessary for me to understand and comprehend class discussions. I likely enjoy writing papers more than most people, so you can put me in the nerd category.
20. Two years ago, I made a twenty year plan with my best friend, Bree. I told her that five and ten year plans freak me out because they seem too short. I thought I could do a twenty year plan because that gives me enough time to work through the steps it may take to get there. Now that I'm down to eighteen years, I'm not entirely sure that I still want to run a youth organization and publish a book by 2036, but it's not the worst goal that anyone has ever set.
21. Deep dish pizza is the love of my life. I'm not even joking. A restaurant near my hometown has my favorite deep dish, and the second best pizza is in Chicago. This is rather unfortunate for my New Jersey life in which everyone eats this flimsy, sad, thin pizza that is New York style. I love many things about the east coast, but they need to change their pizza situation.
22. I actually wrote this blog post a month ago. Sometimes I get an idea for content and it takes forever for me to create and share it. Other times, I start a post that I think will wait a few weeks; instead, I write the entire thing on June 24 and schedule for it to be posted on July 12. The magic of the world wide web!
23. I have had lifelong allergies which suck, and they were mostly to outside things throughout my childhood. (This probably explains why I identify as an inside person as if that is an actual identifier.) A week before I started high school, I suddenly developed lactose intolerance. During my last semester of undergrad, I suddenly developed Oral Allergy Syndrome which means that I will have external reactions involving my face if I am around or ingest any nuts. Yes, all nuts, not just peanuts. It basically sucks because dairy alternatives are often nut-based, and nut alternatives are often full of sugar and no actual nutrition.
24. I was on Glee one time (see above: it has changed my life so many times in so many ways), and I think I fell in love with Darren Criss. He's engaged, so I guess he moved on. Whatever, man.
25. I don't know what I'm doing with my life. I mean, *I know* that I have two more years of the social justice advocacy track in the M.Div. program at Drew Theo and *I know* that I am doing an internship this next academic year with Judson Memorial Church. I don't actually have any plans for after I finish the degree. I joked with friends one day that I might consider going on The Bachelor (another guilty pleasure, but this one is embarrassing). Sometimes I think it would be cool to study sociology or move into Manhattan to do whatever people do when they live in Manhattan or find a remote job while traveling or...?
Who knows? I do know that I want to combine the pieces of my life of which I am passionate: arts, justice, youth, words. I am unsettled about the theological implications of asserting platitudes such as, "God has a plan," or "Only God knows what will happen," though I can agree that I don't have the next answer. Or many answers at all. Regardless of where that falls with God and me and humanity, I'll keep striving toward doing good for the world.
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| My cousin, brother, and I were all born in July within 2 years and 13 days of each other, so there were many shared birthday parties over the years. |
I don't know, but I'm about a third of the way through this thing called life, so I'll keep you updated about the journey toward figuring it out.
PS: You get a bonus!
26. I use my middle initials on writing content because
A) it allows a way for me to distinguish between personal and professional-ish communication and writing;
B) I read a report one time that said people who use their middle initial are considered more professional than their business peers who only use a first and last name;
C) I have two middle names, so I don't know how that gets mixed into the equation; and
D) I bet you can't guess the two middle names on your first try if you haven't known me for long.
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