Aisling

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Age: 19

Status: Homeschooler

Favorite word(s): unswerving, evocative, hallowed, darling, fealty, tatterdemalion

Bio:

I'm Aisling. It's pronounced Ash-LEEN. It's a gaelic name. It means "dream, or vision."
I'm half Irish, and half Italian, Polish, German, Scottish, and Austrian. But none of that really matters, except the “half Irish” part. :) (See, I’ve decided that Irish Americans are, by rule, obsessed with their Irish heritage. They research down to the last detail until they know every last nationality they are at all affiliated with, and exactly how much, just so they can assure themselves in the end that they’re more Irish than anything else). I'm only half-serious about that, though - I'm very glad to be Austrian and Scottish, and Polish, and Italian...and I've come very close to being glad to be German.

I have an older sister, two younger sisters, and a little adopted Colombian brother. I love them all too much to talk about. I don't know what God was trying to do when He gave me this family of mine...sometimes it's overwhelming how much I have. Who am I? The more I grow up, the more I realize how blest I am...and it makes me want to sing. And it makes me want to cry.

I am 100% Roman Catholic. Catholicism is something you have be 100% or not all. (But then, I think I'd say...if you're anything, you should be it 100%--if you can't be, then don't be it). I am glad of my faith. It has grown up in me as I've grown up in it. When I was little I went from not really thinking about it, to wondering at it, to loving it because my parents did...and now I love it for its own sake, for my own sake. I have yet to find another religion that is truer than Catholicism, that I could love, and be, and be 100%.
If I get started talking about God I could go on for way longer than anyone would care to listen... I'll just say that I love Him, more than I could ever love anything else, because He first loved me. Everything I have is His, everything is through Him and with Him and in Him, and everything is for Him. Because He is for me. And sometimes I cry, to think that He knows my name...

I used to have a...rather extensive...list of things I like and things I don't. I won't go over it all again, but I can't resist making at least a shortened version—but only my favorite things, ‘cause I don’t feel like talking about my not-favorite things…
Random favorite things: garlic bread, chicken paprikash, chocolate zucchini bread, unripe pears, kiwis, chicken parmesan, jewish rye bread, white pizza, coconut macaroons, basil, and hot milk with a little bit of coffee and a spoonful of brown sugar; kittens, ducklings, and baby turtles; the smell of books (some are nasty, but it’s so fascinating how many different smells different books can have, and how you unwittingly associate a certain smell with, say, Jane Austen after reading something of hers), the smell of crayons, of rain, and of almost every flower in creation; green (any shade, except anything really bright), lavender, rosebud pink, slate blue, auburn, navy, and grey; willows, sycamores, tulip poplars, fruit trees, pink roses, lilaac, queen anne’s lace, and lily-of-the-valley; acoustic guitars, bongos, tinwhistles, violins, hornpipes, waltzes, Strauss, Rich Mullins (greatest Christian song artist of all time), Caedmon's Call, Chris Rice, Jars of Clay, Mark Schultz, Bebo Norman, Bethany Dillon, and random Irish music bands; J. R. R. Tolkien (my all-time favorite author), C. S. Lewis, Louisa May Alcott, Jane Austen, George MacDonald, Elizabeth George Speare, George Eliot, Meriol Trevor, Allen French, Charles Brady, Wendell Berry, and Charles Dickens. (You don't know how huge it is that I've officially added that last name. Dickens and I have a sad history. But I think now that I've read and loved Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities, and Nicholas Nickleby, the wretchedness of my David Copperfield experience has finally been outweighed...)
I like sketching, taking photos, making greeting cards, playing badminton, watching good movies (that's almost an oxymoron, these days...). I something-more-than-just-like listening to music, playing music, ceili dancing, reading a good book, reading poetry. I love going barefoot. I love watching stars. I love holding a baby, and having their "whole world fall asleep on my shoulder" (I can't remember where I heard that...a poem somewhere). I love standing before an ocean, half terrified by its greatness, and half thrilled by its unparalleled beauty. I love falling asleep in moonlight. I love baking something yummy, just because. I love having into-the-wee-hours sister talks in bed.I love praying, writing :), being with my family. I love loving life.

All that's left to be said is how glad I am to have been homeschooled. The more I grow, the more I realize, the more I think about it...the more I know that nothing else could have ever been so right.

(Ok. Don't laugh. I'm sorry if I was misleading to imply, in the beginning, that this was going to be somehow short...anywhere near short...at all...)

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Aisling