30 Facts About Me

Macy M23 comments7206 views

This was a post I started for when I turned 30 but that apparently I never finished and posted.  Just an opportunity to learn more about who you are reading the adventures of!

Obviously my name is Macy Miller, hopefully you know that much about me… Here are some more unique details:

  1. I live in the great state of Idaho and have never lived anywhere else for the past 30 years, though I have lived in a few different towns in Idaho.
  2. I grew up riding quarter horses and playing with cows on my grandparents’ farm, it wasn’t uncommon to find me in the field with a flyswatter buddied up with the bull, swatting all the flies off of him.
  3. I have done barrel racing and pole bending in rodeos as well as showing horses… I wasn’t very good at it but it was fun 🙂
  4. I built my house with my own hands from the ground up (you probably know this much about me too).
  5. I have never eaten and McDonalds in my entire life.
  6. I have never held a baby in my life but am due March 2014 with a baby girl to try it out with! 🙂
  7. I got a Masters Degree when I was 22, this was the biggest accomplishment of my life at the time.
  8. I did my first oil painting when I was 11.
  9. I currently have a Blue Great Dane named Denver, previously I had a little brown Chihuahua named Tobi, he adopted my dad because he loves him more.
  10. I never had a drink of alcohol until the very minute I turned 21, 9:33pm Mountain Time.
  11. My favorite color is the crayola crayon shade of Ultramarine Blue.
  12. My favorite food is a bean and cheese burrito.
  13. I was 5′-7″ from 6th grade up until August 2013 when I broke my back and became 5′-6″
  14. I have one tattoo that I got when I was 23, after wanting it for 6 years. It is an important reminder to me of creativity being drawn from reality and science as well as serving as a reminder of one of my idols, Leonardo Da Vinci.
  15. If I had to choose between music or TV I would pick music. My favorite bands include TOOL, NIN, Modest Mouse, Dr. Dog, Meiko, The Black Keys and on and on and on.
  16. I am legally permitted to carry a concealed weapon (so don’t get any ideas (: ).
  17. I am a Virgo, though I was supposed to be a Cancer.
  18. I do not know how to swim and am afraid of water.
  19. I identify myself politically as a republican.  (I don’t believe a lot of the ‘hot issues’-abortion, gay rights, etc.- should be ‘political’ so I don’t include those views into my political views)
  20. I am incredibly introverted.
  21. I am currently looking at changing my profession to teaching high school students.
  22. I HATED high school, every single day after high school has been better than any day at high school.
  23. I LOVE Christmas music and Christmas lights.
  24. The first time I decided I wanted to be an architect was in 4th grade.
  25. I decorated cakes and gutted fish for a grocery store for 4 years as my job while putting myself through college.
  26. I was a painfully shy kid, I never outgrew that until I got my college degree and found my confidence.
  27. I have dyed my hair both black and platinum blond and kept it each way for a significant amount of time.
  28. I can take a 25′ long piece of rope and make it into a horse halter in less than 15 minutes using nothing but knots.  I used to sell them when I was a kid.
  29. My thumbs are double jointed.
  30. I have had well over 40 cavities in my life but I swear I have good brushing habits, I just have crappy enamel!  I used to cry every time I went to the dentist.

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23 Comments

  3. Awesome! Thank you for sharing this! I liked what you said about art. I started out going to school for art- I too painted my first painting at 10, but I fell in love with biology in the fourth grade. We had two microscopes at the back of the room and the tiny world of microscopic organisms fascinated me. I begged and begged my parents for a microscope, but they said that ‘girls dont DO science!’ Well I am in school now and I am DOING science! People do not get the connection between art and science. They are interdependent. One cannot live without the other…

    Reply

  4. #’s 5, 6, & 16 were the ones that surprised me. I can pretty much help you with 5-6 and I would love to participate in #16 with you. 🙂

    Reply

  5. Just my 2 cents: politics = policy. Thus, how can abortion & gay rights be left out of politics?
    I know, I know . . . it would be nice if these decisions were left to individuals versus policy, but they aren’t & probably never will be. So you need to join the correct political party!

    Reply

    1. Precisely, there should not be policies on these issues. It is a matter of government and what should [I feel] be regulated and how. With issues I feel the government should control (public safety, infrastructure etc.) I am very republican. On policy issues that I feel have NO business being regulated by the government I tend to be much more liberal BUT, I would prefer there were no policies at all on those issues. Marriage is about religion when you get right down to it… I am not religious, I don’t feel others should be rewarded for exercising practices of their religion but if they are than others shouldn’t be disallowed based on their beliefs. Really, there should be NO government involvement either way, it is a personal choice based on a persons belief system, it is not an issue of public safety, there is no imminent threat to anyone, just others’ belief systems… why is the government stepping in to protect some beliefs but not others, it should not be a policy. Same with woman’s rights, it is no ones business but the person involved, I get that there is the argument of whether the baby counts as a person or not… I have beliefs on that personally but often it comes down to religion again… That is something that no one but the person(s) involved can possibly understand and it would never be an issue taken lightly… I firmly believe it is NOT a government issue. If anything public safety demands the ability to provide options so there are no botched procedures. But the fact is that it should not be a policy, in my opinion.

      Because I feel the way I do about topics that I do not feel are government issues does not mean I am on the ‘wrong’ party… Because the system is broken doesn’t mean I need to give up on the foundation of it and start bickering too over issues that really shouldn’t be the main concerns right now, I think people jumping on that band wagon is precisely the actions that lead to the breakdown. On the issues that count for the greater good (things the government was set up to protect), not at the individual level, the red party has things down… It’s about business, it’s about fiscal responsibility, it’s about supporting/encouraging innovators that made our country great, it’s about common sense, it’s NOT about personal rights because, in reality, BOTH parties ought to (and in general DO) feel the same about those except for a few religious zealots who are typically the ones ‘elected’ (often by their particular religious groups, terrible reason to elect a person but its human nature) to represent the greater population… of which they don’t.

      Reply

  6. Just write a long (but very insightful) response. Alas it got lost as I tried to post it. Here is the penny version. Neither blue or red are “right” or occupy the high ground. There philosophical differences are as apparent as their different. The real problem is trying to rule red or blue. It can’t be done without ignoring the other color. This breeds contempt. History shows this leads to revolution. There are only two acceptable answers if peace and harmony are truly goals. One, separate colors geographically by creating new borders, and instituting new governments to rule in the same color philosophy. This will only last a while, then wash repeat. The other alternative is to rule from a neutral color. Smaller government and more individual freedom, not less. A revolution was never born when the people had “too much” freedom and liberty–never.

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  7. Avril Brown,

    Art, Science? Of course they go together. I have a poet friend who never studied science but now taught science students a poetry class where they merged the two.
    How about physics and art. Take a look at the work of the Biomimicry crowd. Dr. Janine Benyus is doing great work, discovering earth friendly solutions via nature…And the beauty of it all is exquisite. During my elementary and high school years I had the impression that the great work of science, biology, was completed. What an erroneous thought. But none of those teachers ever pointed out how much exciting things were going on or could go on in those fields. More power to you Avril. Happy to hear you are pursuing your passion. If you haven’t already take a look at Biomimicry, Innovation Inspired by Nature, by Janine Benyus.

    Reply

  9. Hi, are you still thinking about teaching high school? For the love of anything and everything, I promise on my life, DO NOT BECOME A TEACHER!

    I’ve been doing it for a year and a half now (an international school in Cochabamba, Bolivia, so rich, spoiled brats – might be a unique component of my experience), and I loathe nearly every minute. I am very introverted – I love books and reading and learning and science and discovering and sharing the neat, fun stuff I’ve learned – that’s teaching, right? No! A thousand times, NO!

    The trouble is, being a high school “teacher” does not actually involve much teaching. It’s only crowd control and classroom management – disciplining large, old kids who behave like small, young kids: “please sit down,” “stop talking,” “quit throwing things,” “no, you may not go to the bathroom,” “I told you for two weeks that this assignment was due today,” “Stop talking!” “Do not touch her again,” “Class started five minutes ago, why are you late?” “You didn’t bring your paper, pen, binder, book, homework, etc. ad infinitum, again?” “Stop talking!” “Put your phone away. No. Give it to me. Give it to me now. Now! Give me your phone!” “Stop talking!”

    This is just the beginning. Introverts are drained by being around people, right? As a “teacher” you’re ON for six plus hours every day, trying to entertain someone else’s rotten, undisciplined, coddled, bored with EVERYTHING teenager. It’s not manual labor, but I promise, as an introvert, you don’t know soul deep exhaustion until you “teach” high school. They will suck your life from you, defecate it back on you, and leave you to die. Hmm, that could be an exaggeration, that one, I suppose, but everything else is true, I promise.

    If you decide to become a “teacher,” don’t say you weren’t warned.

    Concerned,

    Jake

    Reply

    1. Wow! I don’t even know how to respond to this but I think you should change jobs! 🙂 I can relate to a lot of what you say completely. In our area we have a lot of satellite schools with a focus and the last two years of HS the kids at these schools are actually going to college credits and they have picked a direction. We have a couple that are engineering/architecture specifically and I have been doing volunteer work with them for years now. I enjoy that the classes are full of respectful kids wanting to learn and so far everyone has been udderly respectful. I could no handle just teaching in the standard public school system, especially if it was spoiled rich kids. I’m curious, what do you teach? I pictured english/literature because those are generally really thoughtful and introspective people who are compassionate and want to encourage instead of discipline but that area always seems to lack interest from the bratty kids… I’ve always thought THAT discipline would be tough to teach.

      Reply

      1. Hi Macy, I suppose you caught me on one of my worst days. Every now and then a little glimmer of hope emerges, but the last week has been especially rough. C’mon Christmas break!

        I teach Biology, Chemistry and Physics. I am endlessly fascinated with these subjects, but my passion has not yet been enough to light a fire for these kids. For what it’s worth, the literature teacher, a former nun from England who swears and smokes and is my good friend – she has the same difficulties and frustrations that I do, so you’re right about that bit.

        Your situation seems to be entirely different from mine, and may very well be worth pursuing. I was an emergency sub in small towns in North Central Washington State, and those kids were great and great fun. I expected something similar down here, and so I have been terribly disappointed. Respectful kids with drive and direction? You may have found the Shangri La of education. . . congratulations on your good fortune!

        Reply

        1. Ha! We all have those days, seriously though, those jobs are not worth it! That sounds like my worst nightmare too! Especially these holiday weeks, kids are antsy and dumb! The sciences would have been my second guess or math, I imagine math teachers have it rough too! Shoot, what’s that leave… Art, I bet art teachers have a great time! 😉

          So far my situation has only entailed volunteer work so I get to avoid all the crappy parts like paper grading and discipline… One of my goals would be to get a job at a great school so that I can give my daughter a leg up and in ‘in’ for when she gets there, so I guess I have a few years to plan it out considering she isn’t born yet ;-).

          What are your feelings/experiences with charter schools? Any better on the teaching end? I have visited a couple that had brilliant and well behaved kids that were working on better projects than I was in college! And doing a better job of it! They were largely run by parents which was a cool dynamic.

          Reply

    1. Hi Ron,

      Thanks for the link to the video. Steve’s points are relevant to my experience. I’m actually moving in the direction he recommends – I loved the hospital job I had in the States when I moved south, and I’m now pursuing distance learning to help me when I am able to return to the US and healthcare.

      I had the best of intentions in warning Macy away from teaching. I just wish someone had shared with me how difficult it would be to teach these Cretans, and wanted to spare someone else the same heartache. Then again, maybe like Steve, I’ll be able to look back with fondness on these difficult times since they will have been so effective in preparing me for my next step. I do have a hard time maintaining that faith in the face of the daily onslaught.

      Thanks again,

      Jake

      Reply

      1. I was certainly not offended ;-). If you can’t defend your ideals they probably aren’t that strong in the first place! I took it as a heartfelt warning!

        Reply
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