questions from the web vol. 4

Hello, gentle readers! Hope you enjoy a tiny piece of my psyche here for your enjoyment 🙂

If you got a promotion, a job, a college acceptance, an accolade/award, or just generally accomplished something major, who is the first person you’d tell and how do you think they’d react?

Depending on the accolade, I’d either tell my dad or either my dear friends Kate or Cata. My friends are so good at hyping me and reminding me of the good they see in me, so it’s easy to share with them good news!

What was the best year of your life? The worst? 

The best might be 2019 – I was getting deeper into school, and even though there were low moments, I got to travel a bunch and meet cool people. The worst by far was 2022. Graduating and not having a clear idea of my future and feeling like God put a major pause on my life for over a year was (to make an understatement) awful. It was the most alone and depressed I’ve ever felt. Glad not to be there anymore!

Related Post: More Questions from the Web

Is there a song/movie/food/etc. that strongly reminds you of someone whenever you experience it? Who does it remind you of?

Think Of Me by A Fine Frenzy reminds me of a middle school crush. Commonwealth by Cara Salimando makes me wish I had a summer in Boston. The Sound of Reverie by The Maine reminds me of high school and how quickly life seems to fly by.

What is your ideal birthday? Not the date, but rather your ideal way to spend the day. 

I don’t think I’ve ever had an ideal birthday. I definitely would love to spend a day with friends, but my birthday is in the summer and a lot of my favorite people live far from me in this season.

What’s the worst advice you’ve ever been given?

I truly think follow your passion is probably diabolical advice. I also think it’s the same with “you do you.” I get why people say these things, but honestly, we need a guiding hand to help us actually see what we really want and why we really want it – whether it’s your career or friendships.

Related Post: Fighting for faith on a winding path | quote series

What is the “strangest” thing you believe in? Do you believe in the supernatural? Heaven, angels, ghosts? Luck, fate, magic? Where do you draw the line of belief and disbelief?

The strangest thing I believe in is probably the Holy Spirit. Explaining the Holy Spirit to someone who isn’t a Christian or even a new Christian can be hard, in part because the Holy Spirit expresses Himself differently in everyone’s lives. Some people experience Him through feelings (not me). I find Him through words and dreams and songs on my heart that I haven’t heard in years.

I used to really believe in fate and now I think it’s God. I think the more I know about God, the less I understand. There’s been a shrinking of what I know. This I know: God is real, He loves me, and He speaks tenderly to me. 

The line of belief and disbelief is rather holding space for what you don’t know for sure but you aren’t quite willing to rule out.

What is the most important quality you look for in a friend? A romantic partner?

Loyalty. I have friends that I dearly love for their fun personalities, but are unfortunately not the best at showing up for me. The older I get, the more appreciative I am of the friends who say they’ll show up and actually do. They’re reliable, and that’s such a gift in a world full of things that feel so uncertain.

I feel like what I look for in a romantic partner has changed. I very much used to be drawn to the charismatic, life-of-the-party kind of person. But more recently, I’m more attracted to someone who is attentive; who is interested in what I have to say (even if they’re not interested in the specific subject at hand); a quiet, steady presence that has a light heart is so much more appealing to me.

If you had to write your own eulogy to be read at your funeral, what would it say in brief?

She wasn’t perfect, but she showed up for the people she loved, she asked a million questions, and was faithful to the Way of Jesus.

Has a piece of media (book, film, play, song, etc.) ever changed the way you thought about the world?

I wrote about Mr. Nobody with Jared Leto for my college admittance essay. (I also had another essay with a funhouse mirror as a long drawn out metaphor). Mr. Nobody is about how the smallest decisions define our lives. It made me feel so much better about struggling with decisionmaking. Making a choice alters my future and there are so many lives I’m not living (some of which I’m glad not to be living). It stayed in my head long enough for me to write about it. I love How I Met Your Mother for the retrospective way of storytelling–that our meandering days are leading to the rest of our lives. Ted spending his nights at the bar wasn’t wasted–he was living and growing until the timing was right to meet his person.

If you’re willing, share some answers to these questions below!

Signing off,

Gigi