You’ll be hearing more about my plans for the New Year once we get closer to New Year’s Eve. However, I came across something interesting today that will serve to help prepare my brain for the rest of the stuff I want to accomplish. Thanks to Gala Darling, I came across this great little article that lists the 7 Questions to Ask When You’re Not Sure Who You’re Becoming. Here are my answers, as completely honest as possible:
1) What am I freakishly good at?
I’ll reluctantly say writing. Reluctantly, because I don’t think I’m necessarily freakishly good at it. It’s something I do well, but there’s always room for improvement. Then again, the article follows up by asking What are the things that come so naturally to me, they don’t even register as legitimate ‘talents’? Writing has always been something that a lot of my non-writer friends “can’t even understand how I do what I do.” The same way my mind reels when I notice how good some of my friends are at math, or visual art, or knitting, or cooking. It seems to me that those skills require one’s brain to work in a way mine just doesn’t. Apparently, some people feel the same way about the way I write. So, there’s that.
But what else am I freakishly good at? I’m kinda The Child Whisperer – able to get any kid, no matter how shy, or surly, or crabby, or frantic, to simmer down, trust me, or fall in love with me. 
It’s a gift I’m proud of. I’m also good at mediating conflict. Generally, even if two people I know are fighting with each other, they don’t ask me to choose a side, and I’m usually pretty good at navigating that and either getting people to talk to each other again, or convincing them to be civil enough to each other around me. Lastly, I think I’m really good at putting myself in other people’s shoes. Just call me Atticus Finch. But seriously, I’m good at fostering an environment of acceptance and tolerance, because I don’t judge people based on appearances or social awkwardness or intelligence or lifestyle. I think people generally pick up on that about me and feel at ease. These aren’t things at which I excel all the time, but they’re the things at which I’m best.
2) What do I geek out about?
Geek Culture. I would say that I geek out about comics (though I haven’t read any in a while, because I’m broke), or sci-fi television, or sci-fi stories in general, but the truth is, I geek out about geekery. I love the culture that has come up in the past few years around all of this other stuff I love.
I geek out about anything related to language: English grammar, etymology, spoken word poetry, learning new languages (if you love me, you’ll buy me Rosetta Stone for French, Japanese, Arabic, and Swahili – it’s a Bucket List goal of mine to speak 5 languages fluently before I die.), slang, etc.
Lately, I’ve been geeking out about activism. Not just about one cause even, but about methods by which we can become more involved in the world, and ways in which I can get people to do so.
Lastly, I’ve been geeking out about television writing. I used to not care a whit. Now that I want to do it, I suddenly care very much about the players and how it works. And it’s not even about the conscious decision of “I should get to know the industry of which I’d like to be a part!” but more, “An article about female writers in television…ooh!” Now that I’m learning what it takes, it looks like a really big, really fun game I wanna play.
3) If I was a horrifically superficial & shallow person, what would I really want?
To travel the world indefinitely on an unlimited budget and just experience things, and to be the person everyone considers the leader. Like, if I were in a situation like the one on Lost, I’d want to be the Jack. But better. Because I’d be better at it than he was. But you know what I mean! I want to be the person that everyone else gravitates to and just assumes knows what to do. So, yeah – to be that person, traveling the world, forever.
4) What do I want to be known for?
I want to be known not only for the things I write, but for what the things I write make people do.
5) If I had a full year off, and a stipend of {insert ‘how DARE you?!’ amount of money, here}, how would I spend it?
Since the “how DARE you” amount of money needs to be used within a year, rather than have only a year of #3 on my list, I would use that year and that money to build my dream business that would incorporate the arts and helping the homeless. You wanna know what that idea IS, don’t you. Well, I’m not telling. (Funny how, as honest as I’m trying to be in this post, there are some things that are so naive-sounding and grandiose and embarrassing that I just can’t mention them here!) What I WILL say is that it’s an idea I’ve had since I was about 15, and I will make it happen before my mortal coil shuffles off to Buffalo.
6) What’s going to be carved on my hypothetical tombstone?
As I’ve already told several of my friends, I’m going to have a holographic, interactive tombstone. Picture it: an enormous monument that houses my coffin. Outside, the monument will be surrounded by a velvet rope and plenty of outdoor seating. Mourners will be escorted in one or two at a time by a burly, yet fun bouncer. There will be floodlights going off as if my grave is the site of a movie premiere. And outside the door of the monument will be a big touch screen where people can start my interactive tombstone. They press a button on the screen, and a hologram of me will pop up saying “Hello! And welcome to Teresa Jusino’s grave! She hopes you enjoy your stay. For a photo retrospective of the life and times of Teresa Jusino, press one! To hear her singing her favorite karaoke songs, press two! To ask Teresa questions from beyond the grave, press three…!” That last one would, of course, require lots of pre-recorded responses. Unless, of course, I actually can come back from beyond the grave, in which case “3″ will ring some kind of bell in my spot in Heaven, and I’ll just come on down. Give me a minute, though. I don’t know how long that trip is.
This was my Halloween costume in 2004. I was "A Republican."
7) If my parents / my grandma / God / whoever holds my sense of personal propriety in check was GONE (poof!) and there was no one to offend, upset, or disappoint… who would I become?
Wow. That’s kind of already true. And I kind of have already been doing that. I was actually talking to one of my best friends late last night via GMail Video Chat, and talked about the fact that I feel like, now that my mom is gone and my dad doesn’t really know what’s going on, I’m finally growing up and figuring myself out, whereas I didn’t really have a “rebellious period” in my youth, and pretty much lived my life to make them proud. Don’t get me wrong, I still want them to be proud. It’s just that now I’m less concerned with them, or anyone else, agreeing with my choices. Thankfully, I don’t have to worry about offending or upsetting anyone else in my life, because they’ve all proven time and time again that they don’t judge me and/or love me no matter what. Even if they see me/think I’m fucking up, they step out of my way and let me make my mistakes without too much fuss. I’m very lucky that way.
And that’s that! Hope that allowed you to get to know me a little better!
