I've always wanted to ask...

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Jullianna

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Do you have a question you've always wanted to ask someone who frequents these forums, but you don't because you don't want to derail a thread? Happens to me all the time. :) Here's your chance. Fire at will.

Gabe: You play drums extremely well. Do you play now for pleasure or for others in some way?

McCharming: Why did you decide to become a vegetarian?

Ritter: Do you plan to run for office someday?

Holly: How did history come to play such an important part in your life?

CHC: Tell me a little bit about the personal struggle you went through..if you are comfortable in doing so.

Green: I know you are a writer. What sort of things do you write?

Kim: I know that you were adopted. Have you learned much about your birth family or have you been interested in that at all? I ask because I HAD to learn as much as I could about my bio dad when I became a cop. (If you aren't comfortable talking about it, I lovingly ask that you just ignore the question. :) )

LightningClap: I THINK you said something in a thread about some serious health issues God had brought you through. Did I? What happened?

niceguy: Why are you so quiet? :)

AGAIN, IF ANY OF THE QUESTIONS MAKE YOU UNCOMFORTABLE IN ANY WAY, PLEASE JUST IGNORE THEM. :) AND FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO ARE POSING QUESTIONS, PLEASE GIVE THEM CAREFUL CONSIDERATION BEFORE YOU TYPE THEM. THANKS. :) I'M NOT A PARTICULARLY SENSITIVE PERSON WHEN IT COMES TO STUFF LIKE THIS, BUT I REALIZE OTHERS MIGHT BE. :)
 
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This question is often asked of me, and the answer is always an emphatic no, lol. My passion is working campaigns. So far I have worked for 10 candidates on 6 races in 3 different states. Most of them are victories. I started out as an intern, climbed to field director, and when I graduate I will end up helping my perpetual boss in consulting and race management. I will likely be either a campaign manager or some other mid-higher level position on campaign staff upon graduation.

My goal is to become an established consultant and do a bit of writing on the side. A good example of what I would eventually like to become is Karl Rove or Reince Priebus.

I think it is funny how people picture political campaigns as these seedy little underworlds. They have that element, but most of us are simply geeky strategists with political ideals and a competitive zeal that was kept dormant by perpetual loss in high school gym classes. Very few of us actually become candidates because we love our jobs that much.

That said, I might run for school board or city council after growing bored of retirement at age 79. ;)

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Jullianna: What precisely do you do for a living? I've gathered from posts that you are in law enforcement of some sort.

Green: What is the meaning of your nickname? Who wants to be green?

Liamson: What are your favorite books? I admire your intelligence and would like to know what sort of lit you are drawn towards.
 
Jullianna: What precisely do you do for a living? I've gathered from posts that you are in law enforcement of some sort.

I was a cop for years before my husband passed, but my son was not comfortable with it afterwards. So...I went back to school, got my Masters in Criminal Justice and am presently a legal researcher/investigator/consultant for a large law firm. I'm going back to school for the next few months for some updates in forensics and have been looking into possibly going back into law enforcement now that my son is grown.

Ritter, I hope you do run for office at some point. You'd be very effective. Then again, you can be pretty effective right where you are. :)
 
To answer you Ritter. I like a lot of non-fiction books. On the average I read about 3 books a month. Typically none of it is literature though.

Things that have shaped how I see the world are Calvin & Hobbes comics, Pilgrim's Progress and Paradise Lost.

Philosophy and Psychology books written by Emmanuel Kant, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and C.S. Lewis have inspired me to always keep learning.
 
Thanks, Jullianna! I have played for a few bands in the past, just local bands. I got my start in high school playing in all the school's bands (marching, concert/orchestra, jazz ensemble). I'm not in a band now. The ones I was in before were people I ran into who happened to be in a band looking for a drummer. I'm not actively looking for a band to be in. I just play for fun and to keep my now rusty skills up to par (which they are not right now). I also am not looking to be in a band because all the loud concerts and live rehearsals I've played in have taken a toll on my hearing and I don't want it to get worse.
 
Jullianna: What precisely do you do for a living? I've gathered from posts that you are in law enforcement of some sort.

I was a cop for years before my husband passed, but my son was not comfortable with it afterwards. So...I went back to school, got my Masters in Criminal Justice and am presently a legal researcher/investigator/consultant for a large law firm. I'm going back to school for the next few months for some updates in forensics and have been looking into possibly going back into law enforcement now that my son is grown.

Ritter, I hope you do run for office at some point. You'd be very effective. Then again, you can be pretty effective right where you are. :)

Impressive. Best wishes in that endeavor, sounds like hard work.

Thank you :) That is why I intend remain where I am unless God calls me elsewhere. I've never enjoyed doing anything more than campaigns. Getting good people elected is my ministry.

To answer you Ritter. I like a lot of non-fiction books. On the average I read about 3 books a month. Typically none of it is literature though.

Things that have shaped how I see the world are Calvin & Hobbes comics, Pilgrim's Progress and Paradise Lost.

Philosophy and Psychology books written by Emmanuel Kant, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and C.S. Lewis have inspired me to always keep learning.

A commendable diet. It doesn't at all surprise me (in a good way, lol). I have never cracked Wittgenstein open, but he is on my long-term reading list.
 
Be careful you don't blow out a few neurons. A 121 page book took me about 3 months to read successfully.
 
Hi Jules! ARGH!! I just wrote out an answer to your question but there was some kind of glitch... so I'll try again. ;)

People often ask if I always knew I was adopted--since my parents are a different race, it's not like they could hide it. I've heard stories of adoptees who were "passed off" as the parents "own" child and never told--but they always found out on their own. I was always glad for my parent's openness.

I was found in a cardboard box in front of a theater in Seoul, South Korea (hence my username) when I was approximately 3 days old (my "birthday" is actually a "guesstimate"--no one really knows, except God.) Someone found me, took me to the police, and then to an orphanage. I had foster parents for 4 months, then came home to my wonderful Mom and Dad when I was 6 months old. Unfortunately, there are no other records. I went back to Korea in 1994 on a tour for adoptees and several others on the tour were able to meet their foster parents--mine had been very elderly (in their 60's) and were not able to be located (so, that made me wonder about yet a "second set" of unknown parents--I would guess they had probably passed on.) I remember feeling very down... as if I would never have a history or foundation.

When I was growing up, I was obsessed with wanting to "look like" or "be like" someone (in a natural way, not staged or pretended). I am very different from my parents in most ways and so I always wished for someone I resembled. To this day, I hate it when people tell me, "Oh, you look exactly like..." someone they know... and they only say that because the person they know is Asian or has dark hair!! (I've met some of my supposed "clones" and I look NOTHING like them.)

But, there just aren't any records and as time has gone by, I've come to accept that I will probably never know. I have small hints (my blood type, for example) that I am most likely mixed and I find it ironic--in reality, who knows, maybe I don't resemble either of my birth parents as well! I used to fantasize that one day I'd meet my birth mom and we'd look so much alike that people would have no doubt that I... "belonged" to someone. I also have a sneaking suspicion in my heart that my story of origin may not be so pleasant. I truly believe that sometimes God shields us from reality. Some of the people who have prayed for me have said they believe my parents neither loved each other nor did my birth father want me.I've talked to some adoptees who are very bitter about being "abandoned" or "left behind", which I've felt as well, but the truth is, the reality of what happened might even be harsher. I just try to believe that God had a much better life planned for me here.

I have the most wonderful Mom and Dad I could have ever had!! I have often said that if God let me choose... and my choices were, let's say, Bill Gates, Donald Trump, or a young couple living in a trailer in a little town no one has heard of, I would have made the wrong choice. As an adult, I decided that if I ever did meet my birth parents, I would use the Korean words to call them "mother" and "father" out of respect, but for me, the titles of "Mom" and "Dad" are reserved for the people who raised me--made sure I was baptized, sent me to Christian schools, were there for every sickness and milestone... No one could ever replace them. The hardest thing for me when I went back to my old orphanage was seeing all the other kids waiting for what I had so early on--a Mom and Dad. I always ask God, "Why me? Goodness knows there are so many out there who would have been less difficult!"

I have read about adoptees who spend their entire lives and savings trying to find their birth families. I can sympathize with them completely, and while I used to feel this way, I don't so much anymore. Now it's less of an obsession and more of a curiosity and concern for medical history.

Ironically, I met a friend here at CC who has a relative they resemble so closely that the two are always mistaken for each other. This person feels as much like "the odd one out" as I do--for completely opposite reasons!! We always want what we don't have, huh? My friend's generous openness about their own struggles has, in its own way, given me a lot of peace. I thank God for all the people He puts onto my path!! :)

And thanks so much for taking an interest in my story. (Great thread!! Tried to give you rep credits but the system always goes into overload when I try!)

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Questions!!! Will probably have more...

Gabe--How do you cope with people making fun of you for being "different"? (I know you've mentioned it before and I can totally relate!! To this day, kids still sometimes "slant" their eyes at me in stores and it burns me up!! I can't say I handle it in the most Christian manner.)

Ritter--What initially got you interested in politics?

Jullianna--Did you ever question yourself or feel you were "missing out" on anything for getting married at a young age? Did your friends or family tell that you should have waited? And would you advise others to wait or to go for it if they felt it was the right time?

Violakat--I admire you because you always seem so calm!! What things really get you going and how do you handle them? (Give us some tips for staying level-headed in hot situations!)

Mr. Green--I admire that you always seem so content!! Did you go through a time of really wanting a spouse or did God give you a peace over being single? (Share the secret with us. ;))
 
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Ritter--What initially got you interested in politics?

As a child my favorite subject was always history mainly because I thought people were interesting. It was not until age 11 that I became politically aware, and that was due to 9/11. The towers falling in my home state and the possibility that were it not for a vacation away from the pentagon's construction site that my, my Uncle would probably have died awakened me to the importance of what we do in the here and now, the history that we make today.

From that point on, I began observing current events and forming my own opinions on them. That and I started entering Piaget's era of development concerning formal logic, so I began seeing these things through the lens of abstract ideas.

As for politics as a career, that is another story. I knew I wanted to do something of a political nature, but didn't know what precisely, mainly because I thought it was all so interesting. It wasn't until the McDonnell campaign in VA (my second) that I realized there was an entire industry behind what I had hitherto been enjoying. That was also the campaign in which I met a political operative for whom I am now a protege. I basically consider her an older sister. She is the one that has been connecting me with jobs for awhile now.
 
McCharming: Why did you decide to become a vegetarian?

Since this thread is all about answering questions I'll give you the long version....

My parents raised me to not eat any sort of pig: ham, sausage, bacon ect. or seafood based off of the biblical indications in Leviticus that they are unclean. Pretty sure I don't have to explain the dietary laws here :)

So anyway, I was a meat and potatoes kind of kid growing up. I enjoyed eating meat just as much as the next person, it was the main staple in my diet and sometimes the only. Between reading the Bible and my love for all animals; even then ones I was eating... I was convicted to give it up but wasn't quite ready at the time. So I just took a small step and quit eating red meat, but continued to eat chicken, fish, and turkey.

A couple of years later, around the age of 19, I had started feeling that conviction again and the guilt I was feeling when I ate meat was something that I didn't want to live with. I told my dad about it and he said that he was feeling the same conviction as I was. So we both decided that day on adopting the vegetarian diet into our lives, and not too long after that my little brother also became a vegetarian.

After just a short period of time it had been confirmed to me that I made the right decision. I had a much higher sense of well being as well as a "spiritual awakening". Not to mention that within that first year my weight dropped from over 270 down to around 220, without excersise! Also, I have had no reason to even go see a doctor since making that life changing decision.
 
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Kim: The reason for your curiosity was much the same as mine in my situation. I looked different from everyone living in my house too. My mom had told me that I looked like my bio dad, but I was not allowed to ask questions about him and didn't see a photo of him until jr high when I ran across one in my grandmother's photo album. My grandmother gave me all of the pics of him and I hid them from my mom.

I tried to find him when I left home, but the adoption records were sealed. When I became a cop, I was determined to find him. This was stalled a bit by the fact that my mom never told me his first name or even that everyone called him by his middle name. :/ BUT, I kept pressing on and one day she accidently gave me a clue and I found what I was looking for, but my dad had already passed away. I met the rest of his family and many of them look like me. :) It's part of the reason I do a lot of the investigative work I do today. I know there are others out there like you and me.

His family is very loving and took me in as if nothing ever happened. They had come looking for me several times, but since the adoption notice had been served by publication, my mom had quickly remarried and taken me overseas, they had no trail to follow. My bio dad never remarried and never had any other children. :(

Ritter: I totally understand how 911 affected the direction of your life. It did mine as well. We need more like you out there. There are people with brains. There are people with wisdom. I've seen few with both at your level.

McCharming: Thanks for the info. I've been very curious about that. Sounds like Daniel's story. :) I've done Daniel's fast several times and, as you say, you do lose weight without feeling the least big hungry. I think it clears a lot of the fuzziness out of the brain too. Not sure why physiologically, but I know that it does. :)

Kim's Question:
Jullianna--Did you ever question yourself or feel you were "missing out" on anything for getting married at a young age? Did your friends or family tell that you should have waited? And would you advise others to wait or to go for it if they felt it was the right time?

I never felt that I was missing out on anything because I loved my husband dearly and he was so incredibly patient with the kid that I was. :) Had he not been older and more mature, it would have been a recipe for disaster for sure! I can be a bit of a handful, as you might imagine. :D Getting married at 18 and moving 1200 miles away from my family (not seeing them AT ALL for the first 5 years I was gone) and becoming a mom a year later was absolutely overwhelming (my husband wanted to be a dad before he turned 30). :) I DO NOT recommend it. :)

In some ways I think it made me grow up a lil too fast, but I kinda have an old soul anyway, so I'm not sure that would have mattered. haha I DO believe with all of my heart that it was God's plan for me though. I say this because I have a wild streak a mile wide. In younger days, someone telling me that I couldn't or shouldn't do something was a sure fire way of getting me to give it a shot. Had God made me a guy or had I gone away to college on my own without the amazing husband I had to protect me from myself, I probably would have gone to jail rather than become a cop. :)
 
Violakat--I admire you because you always seem so calm!! What things really get you going and how do you handle them? (Give us some tips for staying level-headed in hot situations!)

If you only knew the real truth. Trust me, if I seem level-headed it's only by the grace of God. Because there are so many times I am on the verge of a panic attack. Most people really don't see all the problems that I deal with on a daily basis and how often I nearly break down into tears. Even in the last few months, I've had to fight bitterness and resentment from taking over my life as I've seen what seems like me dreams simply vanishing into thin air. It's when I have the hardest time struggling that I tend to cry out to God the hardest. I guess if I were to say anything, it's to reach out to God before you need too. Stay close to Him all your life, and when life hits you hardest, then it will be easier to find Him. This is something even I need to remind myself of all the time, as I tend to chose when to be close to God.
 
Kim - I didn't cope. I just had to bear it. I don't think there's anyway to cope with being bullied in school. My dad kept telling me to fight back but I thought that if I did they would just beat me real bad. There was more than one of them. All together there four that I can remember. All four wouldn't be in one class together, but in gym class there would be two or three of them. Gym class was the worst because they could do whatever they want to me when the teacher was looking the other way. I always tried to play it off like what they did was no big deal, but it was a big deal inside me. Even worse than gym class was getting dressed in the locker room. Usually they would leave me alone, but it was scary because the teacher would be in his office behind a closed door and they really could have gotten away with a lot of stuff in there. They sometimes kicked me or punched me in there and called me names.

When you said you get annoyed when little kids still make slanty eyes. I did too, even when I was already out of school. Its very insulting and I realize now that it had a lot to do with the area I grew up in (southern new jersey). There are practically no asians in that part of the country. Now I live in southern california where every other person is asian (or latino) so you don't get that sort of thing out here. I'm sorry you have to deal with that Kim. Maybe you should move out here! :)
 
My story (the adventure version).

Through high school, I was pretty popular with girls. I was far from a "lady's man" and never really went out of my way to get girls, and never had much interest in dating them. Things got pretty complicated during my junior year as 4 girls started competing for me without me realizing it. As time passed, I sought God's direction for several months, and after spending some time alone praying I thought that I finally knew God's will. I loved one of them more than the rest, I was going to date her until we got out of school and could marry.

Well, as the years passed, our relationship became sexual. We struggled through several issues, but I was still convinced that God had spoken to me; I had spent too long seeking and confirming His will for this to end. Perhaps the biggest issue was that I had chosen to go to college 10 hours away from my hometown, and her. The distance was painful for both of us, but we pushed through it for 2 years.

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Through out middle school and high school, and then into college, I had struggled with porn. I had worked closely with a youth pastor and gotten relief for quite a while until God called her and her family to move. I fell back shortly after and struggled and prayed and studied to find some way to solve this problem, some way to stop.

In college, one night as I lay in bed, I tearfully begged God, for probably the 100th time, to take away the desire. To cleanse my body. As I prayed, I was filled with a sort of dread. I prayed "Dear God, do anything, anything at all to help me." and I knew something big was going to happen.

A month or so later, I woke up one day with a terrible headache. It was exam week at school and I couldn't just stay in bed. I took some ibuprofen each morning and got through my exams, then headed home for christmas break.

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While still in high school, I became a "star" lacrosse player at my school. I wasn't allowed to play hockey due to the expense involved, but once I got on my own started playing. I was in pretty good physical shape, and though I wasn't hitting the gym every day, I would work out with free weights on occassion.

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So, while home this christmas, I started noticing that I wasn't able to lift nearly as much as I could normally lift. My left arm seemed to simply have forgotten how to work. Along with the headaches I had been experiencing, and some congestion and sore throat, I finally got an appointment with my family doctor. Went in and explained my issues. He decided that he wanted to get me in for a head and sinus CT scan to check for some sort of nasal problem (oh naive people we were).

The CT was in the middle of the night, and after it was completed, a nurse came out almost immediately. There was something wrong. I was immediately scheduled for an MRI. So back into a machine I go... (Side note: thank you MRI operator for playing worship music for me as I went through this). A few days later I'm scheduled to talk to a neurologist and diagnosed with a pontine cavernous hemangioma (incredibly rare). The neurologist tells me that the chances of another bleed is extremely rare (less than 0.10 %) so I head back up to school for the next semester.

I continue to haunted by headaches, but to a much less degree than before. After a few check up scans, the neurologist decides that I should talk to a surgeon. So my parents make plans to come get me and take me down to the surgeon. The day before they plan to come up, I start feeling dizzy while laying in bed and start vomitting. I continue for several hours. Without the strength to stand up I crawl to a wall phone in the dorm room. I can't think very clearly, but call my parents and ask them to call one of my neighbors and ask them to bring me to the hospital. I get to the hospital and they give me fluids through an IV and I start feeling a little bit better. Still struggling to walk, but I can do it. Well, they try to get ahold of my doctor or parents but can't, but for some reason decide to release me.

My college neighbors took me back to the dorms, and I started vomitting again. Discovered that sitting up was all that would fix it. So, my college friends and I talk, and decide to try my parents again. Tell them that they need to get up there right away, that I'm not doing well at all. I was far from conscious through a lot of this, but I remember waking up a few times as I "sat" there in bed and hearing one of my friends saying the rosary next to me... over and over. (Note: I wasn't catholic and shouldn't have known what it was, but I did)

Well, my parents finally arrive around 3 am. Decide that I won't be coming back, so with the help of the guys they load up most of my belongings as well. They get right back on the road and we start heading back home. As we get closer, they are able to get a hold of my doctor and he tells us to go straight to the ER. Get there, get checked in and run through an MRI, then just sit there. And sit there and sit there. My extended family is starting to show up at the hospital now. Finally, someone goes to find a nurse because we were there for almost 6 hours without hearing anything; I had gotten lost in a shift change.

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Things are finally sorted out and I have to go to another hospital, about 5 hours away where a specialized neuro-surgeon is willing to perform the procedure. So, my parents climb back into their car and follow the ambulance. I'm in the hospital for a couple of days before surgery, and my parents are given temporary housing nearby. They take shifts with me in the hospital so I'm never there alone. The nurses briefly explain to my parents the procedure that will be done. A small 2" slit will be cut at the base of my skull and they will cauterize the area. Well, I go in for surgery (12 hour ordeal) and come out with my head swathed in bandages. Quite a surprise for my parents. The nurse had been wrong; the surgeon had to cut open my skull to get access to the area he needed to.

The next day, my parents are visiting me in the hospital when they get a call from security at the hospital. They had just caught someone trying to break into my parents vehicle. They had already popped the door handle off before getting caught.

From then on things actually went really smoothly. I went through 6 months of rehab and gained some of my strength and agility back. Through all of this, I didn't have a moment of fear. A moment of doubt. I was calm and reassured; I knew that God was answering my prayer. He would get me through this to where I needed to be.

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So, through all of this, my then g/f seemed to be supporting me. She was there at the hospital with me and we spent time together often once I got out. About a month after everything happened, she broke up with me. It was really rough on me, but in the end it probably was what needed to happen.

So, here I was, all ready to be through with sex and porn. Ready to enter a bright new, pure world, but nope. That didn't happen. I slid right back into porn and then a couple of years later met a girl and a year after that we started dating and having sex. Well, that relationship lasted a couple of years and then ended.

In the end, I am left with a lot of questions, thankfully, God has slowly been answering them. I still look back and wonder, what was God thinking? :)

Sorry that the answer is so long; figured I'd combine my "adventure" story (response to your other thread) and my answer into one.
 
^Thank you for sharing this^ Sounds like quite an ordeal, but you know that God is with you through all things. :) He's going to bring you through the other stuff too. I figured from what you'd mentioned in the other thread that it sounded like something pretty rare, so it made me curious. You are in my prayers.
 
Zero, Nod, Seoul, Liz, Green, Lightning, Jules, Ritter, Viola What do you guys have in mind as far as baby names go? (for the children you don't have)

^reminds me of Power Rangers for some reason^
 
Zero, Nod, Seoul, Liz, Green, Lightning, Jules, Ritter, Viola What do you guys have in mind as far as baby names go? (for the children you don't have)

^reminds me of Power Rangers for some reason^

hahaha a name for the baby we dont have? weird question but i have already the name lol
My favorite name of a baby would be Samuel because the meaning "heard by God"
 
Julianna: How did you meet your husband? :)

Nod: Are you the youngest child in a large family? :D

Mr. Green: I seem to recall a while back that you said that you hoped to purchase some family land. Any news? :)

Zeroturbulence: You mentioned once that you were agnostic for a while. How did you find Jesus? :)

Please ignore me if any of these questions are too personal.................I'll blame Snackers.
 
Zero, Nod, Seoul, Liz, Green, Lightning, Jules, Ritter, Viola What do you guys have in mind as far as baby names go? (for the children you don't have)

^reminds me of Power Rangers for some reason^

My uncle's first name combined with my dad's middle name, if a boy. And a variation of my mom's name for a girl.

I chose my Uncle's name, because he became a sort of father figure to me when my dad died.

What about you Liam?

Snacker'smom, have you given Snacker's a new hair style yet, and if so, do you have a pic?
 
Snacker'smom, have you given Snacker's a new hair style yet, and if so, do you have a pic?

Nope, we had a storm blow through that sort of destroyed the Miscanthus plumes I was planning on using, so Snackers may have to keep the Amaranth locks for a bit longer (sorry, Mr. Green). I did make a 3-foot bird's nest out of some vines and saplings a few weeks ago, though. Now I've got to carve some 8-inch eggs to put in it........:)

Very sorry to hear about you losing your dad :(. But, it sounds like God helped you through it.