stroll.

When I was little, I was always a little different than most girls.

My dad was in the US Navy all throughout my school years. When I was in elementary school, I changed schools six times. Something about this made me excited. If you remember anything about your childhood, or you watch children around you, that many 'major' changes in such a short time generally doesn't fare well. But I loved it. I kept old friends and continued to make new ones. At that age, I was heavily addicted to having 'pen pals'. Funny thing is that I never really wrote to them, nor they to me, for that matter. I remember perusing BB & Bop magazines and practically drooling over the pages that advertised getting you a pen pal you didn't know. I loved it. I basked in the idea, even at that young age, of knowing people everywhere.

Funny how some people stay true to their heart as it was. I'm lucky to say that I am one of those few people.

Anyway, I'll touch on that later. I'm trying to remember things from my childhood, cause I've realized lately that all of these things I remember still apply to the woman that I've become. It's so neat to see how my personality was as it is now, even when I was 7 and 8.

Well, looking back on elementary school, I realize that I have fortunately come full circle. The dreams I had when I was that age are still there. The personality I had then, is the same, just matured. It's amazing to see that.

I was so excited to change schools. I loved moving to different places. I was popular and completely content with my somehow cool geekiness. I was the 'it' girl, back then. All the little boys wanted me to like them, and all the girls wanted to be seen with me. It is so surreal to think about, now, because things changed for me, and drastically, within just a few measly months of leaving Florida.

My life was full of KoolAid stands, big bows, and red tights. I did backbends in the yard and played tag in the palm trees. I tried to run away, but only made it as far as the bus stop behind my house...which just so happened to only be a bus stop for school buses...who knew? I caught baby sea turtles and learned how to get milk from a coconut. I walked to the beach with my mom and brother nearly every day of the year. I begged my parents to let me walk to school, but secretly feared that I'd be eaten by a crocodile if I walked alone. I sat in the closet in my fifth grade class with a group of girls and freaked myself out as we told ghost stories and pretended that we saw strange things in the pitch black of that closet. I mimicked my PE teacher's trademark stance of standing on the sides of his feet, and wondered every time how that didn't hurt his ankles. I played Chicken on the monkey bars and fell and nearly broke my nose. I was a hall monitor and was mean as crap. At 10 years old, I tried to step in with my brother's teacher at the same school and figure out a way to keep him out of trouble. I was all of my teacher's pets, and had a cool friend named Toby Schmidtberger. I ate dry Ramen every time I slept over at Jasmine's house and begged my parents for a waterbed every time I came home from her house. I had two beds in my room with matching green plaid sheets...sheets that matched the curtains...curtains that matched the carpet...the carpet that I lost my tooth in for nearly ten minutes after my brother crawled on my face. I was fascinated with my mother's MaryKay stuff and snuck into our hurricane room all the time to play with her makeup samples.

Life was simple. I guess it always is when you're that age.

But I was never a typical girl. Sure, I had Barbie dolls, and I did typical girly play things, but I never dreamt about a grand wedding...or what my wedding would be like at all. Nothing about my future really intrigued me...nothing at all. I didn't pour over beauty magazines or obsess page by page over wedding magazines. I didn't think about wedding dresses, or flowers, or decorations or where I'd want to be married. I just didn't think about that at all. I didn't need boys, but many of my friends were boys. I was more likely to run through the banana spider webs in my backyard, hoping to find the spider that made it than sit prissily running brushes through my dolls' hair. I've just never been a typical girl. Never fit the 'little girl' stereotype. At 7 years old, I'd already broken the mold.

There's something to be said for people that change the way people think about them by being anomalous at a young age.

I don't know that I've ever been one to be truly stationary. I have wanderlust because of growing up in a Navy family. I love meeting new people from all over the world because I'm used to having to start over.

Those days of drooling over the pen pal section in Bop and BB magazines grew me into a girl who uses internet as a tool for networking in her adult life. Had I not whet my appetite for making new friends with people I've never met at a young age, I would not have met him.

Thank God I met him.