During the first semester of my senior year of high school I had the best English teacher I ever could have asked for (shout out to Furg). Seven “I Am” poems, written about ourselves, that all had to have different ideas behind them. He challenged us to think about ourselves, and who we are as people. He asked us to dig deep, to think about how we want people to perceive us, and to even get their opinions on us before we completed our semester long project.
While many people did exactly what he said NOT to do, and waited until the last two weeks of the semester to complete all 7 drafts, I didn’t. I took the opportunity that he gave us and asked people for their opinions on me, dug deep into who I am as a person, what I want to stand for, and who I want people to see me as. Every time that I thought “Wow, I love that song” or “Oooh, that makes me smile,” I wrote it down in my handy dandy iPhone notes app. All of these handy little facts I learned about myself became one of my “rough drafts,” even though they don't really create a poem. I have slightly updated my list from when I first did it almost a year ago, but most things have stayed on the list.
Here are 100 things I love:
1. The beach at sunrise and sunset
2. Good coffee
3. Bookstores
4. Unexpected friendships
5. Snuggling
6. Random acts of kindness
7. Libraries
8. Mac and Cheese
9. Cozy coffee shops
10. The smell of a new book
11. No-bake cookies
12. Bear hugs
13. Leonardo DiCaprio
14. The smell after it rains
15. Fireworks
16. Singing at the top of my lungs
17. Museums (preferably art museums)
18. Making lists
19. Free samples
20. Kitchens
21. Watching it rain
22. Gatsby and Daisy (both my cats and the characters)
23. Kittens
24. Dressing really fancy for not fancy dinners
25. The Great Gatsby
26. Tiny cacti
27. Pilot G-2 pens (10pt.)
28. My sisters chocolate chip cookies
29. Arts and crafts
30. Plane tickets
31. Art supply stores
32. Cute journals
33. Gift cards
34. Cozy quilts
35. Seashells
36. Crushed ice
37. Bedrooms with slanted ceilings
38. Window nooks
39. Breakfast for dinner
40. Rain on a tin roof
41. Alone time
42. Laying out by a pool
43. Harry Potter
44. Cooking
45. Iced coffee in the summer
46. Tomato soup
47. Bonfires
48. Pretty sanctuaries
49. The smell of sunscreen
50. Harry Potter World at Universal Studios
51. Porch swings
52. Skylights
53. Big fireplaces
54. Nice smelling candles
55. Making people smile
56. Signatures
57. Reading on a beach
58. Wrapping presents
59. Waiting in line for a concert
60. Corn mazes
61. Board games
62. Harmonies
63. Ice-cream (chocolate peanut butter especially)
64. Traveling
65. Taking pictures
66. Concerts
67. Banana bread
68. Writing
69. Fall
70. Having friends over
71. College admission letters (my E&H one particularly)
72. Really big t-shirts
73. Target
74. Flying in airplanes
75. Layovers in cool places
76. Seeing friends you haven’t seen for awhile
77. Star Wars
78. Binge watching Netflix
79. Painting
80. Small groups at church
81. Lazy Sunday afternoons
82. Getting packages in the mail
83. Finding money I forgot about
84. The window seat (so I can pretend my life is a movie of course)
85. Choir concerts
86. Having someone play with my hair
87. Kitten kisses
88. Camping
89. The Virginia Creeper Trail
90. Going to see musicals
91. Pulling into the driveway after a long trip
92. When company shows up
93. Random visits from friends
94. Jesus
95. Kenya, Africa
96. Giraffes
97. Aesthetically pleasing Instagram feeds
98. Pura Vida
99. My best friend, Haley
100. My parents
101. My sister, Abby
