I sort of met this storyteller at a book signing last summer. We didn't actually talk, we just noticed each other and commented it about online later, as we saw each others' profiles through some mutual friends. Since then, we've been e-mailing sporadically and I recently learned that she'd fit very well into my family. I hope we can meet up sometime in the near future, seeing that she doesn't live too far from me. She seems very sweet, just from what I can tell online.
Name you'd like to go by: JSully
Age: 38
Gender: Female
Location: Arlington, VA
What is an experience that is legendary for you?
I had difficutly coming up with something that would be described as “legendary” in my life, so instead I chose to describe a period of time that changed my life and the way I lived it. In 2009 I spent a month in Djibouti for work. It was during this time I realized I desired a simpler life. By simple, not “needing” extravagance. My experience was a real eye-opener. While I was fortunate to have a driver, a bullet-proof vehicle and a stay in the only civilized and modernized hotel, I witnessed the lives of thousands of Somalian refugees. Djibouti is a very small, but peaceful and independent country located in Africa. Even though living conditions on the streets of Djibouti (desert-like) are horrifying by our standards, the refugees’ lives are ideal in their safe haven where they have freedom.
Each morning I watched refugees awake in their homes made of four stakes in the dry desert floor with a piece of material tied to the top for a roof. The women and children washed clothing in a basin of water. Men… well, they seemed to sit there a lot. It’s so hard to imagine this life is better than what they had. It wasn’t long before I vowed to donate more once I got home. I simplified my life and I don’t shop for clothing and materialistic things like I used to.
To this day when I think of their lifestyle, I constantly look at mine and am thankful that we live here, in America with the “luxury” of freedom and the ability to live in a home – a real one.
What is your guilty pleasure?
Despite my feelings of simplifying my life, I have not been able to rid of ‘most’ of my boots. I have 25 pairs of boots.
What is something you've never done but you would like to do?
Go on a Safari.
If you could give someone one of your favorite things as a gift, what would it be and why?
Happiness. Can you imagine, bottling happiness and being able to give it as a gift? No explanation needed. J
What is something you did that changed someone's life?
Donate blood on a regular basis. I know I still change someone’s life, even if I don’t know who they are.
What part of your personality is now extinct?
The gullibility, being naïve. After being engaged to a con-artist and putting him in jail for ID theft, I have learned to understand what a gut feeling is, and to trust it.
What is one thing that you find really funny?
I can’t think of funny things on command! Perhaps I will come back to this, but I find a lot of things funny.
Tell me one thing you love about yourself (or a gift you'd like to get yourself, where money is not an issue):
I don’t feel I need any ‘items’ so I can’t imagine wanting anything I don’t already have or cannot get on my own. However, one thing I would like, that money cannot buy, is 100% hearing without the assistance of devices.
What TV show, book or movie is most like your life?
I dispute this and I’m telling you only because I can’t think of any on my own…. My girlfriends tell me Sex and the City; a cross between Carrie and Samantha.
What is something that not many people know about you?
I’m hearing impaired; severe to profound. I have never lived in a ‘deaf world,’ and thus this comes as a shock for anyone who has not known another who was hearing impaired.
1 comment:
What a great idea. Fun series!
Post a Comment