Personal

10 Things You Didn’t Know About Me

March 19, 2014March 27, 2014 by Desi

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I studied abroad in Germany the summer between high school and college. The thing I remember most about it is how for the first month, my best friend and I could not figure out why we were getting so many more stares from people than the rest of our class. Turns out that people were staring at our blonde hair because it’s not very common there. (I also remember being so proud when I paid for most of the trip by myself from my after-school job at Hallmark.)
My favorite part of college, and now my favorite part of work, is writing papers. I don’t get to do it often in my day job, but even after I graduated, I found myself helping Sixx with his papers and projects. I’m not sure what it is about it, but I really enjoy researching, fact checking, editing, and putting together reports.
I taught ESL in my past life. For three years where I first went to college, I worked in the English Language Program with students from Saudi Arabia, South Korea, and Japan primarily. It was a crash course in communication, but the things I learned from the job and the students stick with me still! It also introduced me to Arabic food, which I now fiend over.
In order to stay organized, I have to color code everything. In my planner, work tasks are light blue, money related things are green, fitness is purple, and any other personal appointment or reminder is pink. I love office supplies, especially Post-It Notes.
My dream job is to be a tour manager for a mid-level rock band (think The Hold Steady or Drive-by Truckers.) I get antsy if I stay in one place too long, and I don’t ever expect to have anything that will tie me down to one location. I’ve always known I want to be on the road, I’ve just never known how to get there. My “backup” dream job would be to write songs for Sesame Street. (A bonus fact – I LOVE the Muppets.)
I don’t want to get married.
My accidental foray into the sports industry has actually, finally made me interested in sports. Mostly the business/analytics side of it, but hockey used to be the only thing I paid attention to. Now I read Deadspin every day, even if I don’t actively watch games.
Peter Sagal is my running idol. He’s the host of Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!, my favorite NPR show, and a two-time Boston finisher. He contributes regularly to Runner’s World and recently posted a mid-run selfie with Lauren Fleshman. I hope to someday run as fast as him.
I’m always torn between whether I want to live in Chicago or Los Angeles. I just have to live near water after growing up in Michigan. Being landlocked makes me very claustrophobic and panicky.
I had a full ride scholarship to art school out of high school. Instead I chose to pay for six years of college. Sometimes I wonder what my life would be like if I had gone, but I have to try not to fixate on it. Now in my life now as a graphic designer, I feel like I spend 80% of my time explaining the difference between designers and artists.