It's been awhile since I last introduced myself round these parts, so I thought, 'hey, let's give it a go and show them what being perpetually Caroline is all about!' You're going to want to bash your own ears (or eyes) in after hearing my whole life history, so... have fun! Toodles!
I'm Caroline. I'm from North Carolina originally, but I'm not named after the state. I'm named after the state university's basketball team - UNC Tarheels. A week before I was born, the Tarheels won the '93 NCAA Championships. Thus began a lifetime of being a nervous wreck throughout March.
And yet, I don't have an athletic bone in my body.
SOMEHOW, I still became team manager of the varsity softball team here at my university. I didn't know the first thing about softball, but all my best friends were on the team and I went to every game anyway, so we just went ahead and made it official.
My family now lives in Texas. Houston, to be more specific. So I feel sorry for NO ONE who complains about humidity and heat and whatever, because you're not allowed to until you've lived survived a Houstonian summer.
I'm now a senior at Stanford. Northern California is a dream. Stanford's a dream. A really, really crazy, amazing, wild dream that I cannot believe for the life of me has come true. And I'm scared - really, really scared that my alarm clock's set to wake me up June of 2015, and I'm going to have to up and have a go at the real world.
I'm a psychology major. It's made me neurotic. There's a whole post waiting to be written about what being a psych major does to a person. I also study communication. This isn't officially written anywhere, but my studies revolve around media, society, and culture. Really, how things like entertainment and social media and technology and all that good stuff affect our society - our education, politics, everyday lives, and vice versa as well. It's fascinating. I could write essays about it. Oh wait. I do.
Last year, I studied abroad at Oxford for a quarter. To this day, it remains the scariest and most rewarding academic experience I've ever had. Every day, I woke up to scenes straight out of Harry Potter and I was the happiest girl alive.
Then, this past summer I interned for NBC in New York, and let my inner Liz Lemon shine.
I miss New York every day. I miss Europe every day. Needless to say, 2014 has been all about dreams coming true for this girl.
I am an ABC. As in, an American Born Chinese (although I do have to say, I'm quite the ABC network fan as well, do not tell the folks over at NBC!) - I go back to China quite often to visit my family.
It's somehow sparked within me an intense interest in Chinese history - specifically, the Qing dynasty. I read fanfiction about emperors and princesses and whatnot as my bedtime stories.
I pretty much won the family lottery. My sister's my best friend. As are my parents.
But I also won the friendship lottery. I can count on one hand the people I consider to be my very closest friends, but I won't ever let them go. Ever ever. Especially because my love language(s) are: quality time, affirmation (of love), and gifts.
Writing is my one true passion, I think. Primarily creative nonfiction. That's most likely why I love blogging so much.
But the two loves of my life are traveling and food. Which is why, if you asked me about my dream job, I'd have to say a food travel writer.
Except the thing is, I'd be morbidly obese because I despise exercise with a passion. I like staying in bed watching Gilmore Girls way too much, which is exactly what I've been doing with all my free time in this past couple of weeks.
If you asked me what I could never give up ever ever ever, I'd say carbs and sweets. Emphasis on the carbs.
In fact, I went on a "diet"/"detox" that started on Monday, and had three pieces of chocolate cake by Monday night. I don't do well with limitations, you see.
My celebricrushes? Easy. Jennifer Lawrence. Kate Middleton. Jennifer Aniston. Mindy Kaling. Chrissy Teigen's quickly making it up there, too. Boy celebrities? Overrated. But Robert Downey Jr. is a beautiful human being. As is Captain Hook from Once Upon A Time.
I'm seriously one of the most laidback people you'll ever meet. I'll be the first to say that I have more flaws than strengths, but I will say that I do think I have a great perspective on life, which leads to me being stressed just about never. I do get deeply anxious about really stupid things, like crossing busy intersections and punctuation in e-mails.
The very last thing I do every day before I fall asleep is go through my Instagram feed. I avoid it all day, and get about ten minutes to go through an entire day's worth of other people's highlights & it's the perfect amount for me. (Although I get mad when Instagram cuts off the feed past 20 hours.)