One of my favorite old-school Authentic Relating prompts is ‘If you really knew me, you’d know…’
I’ve had amazing conversations with complete strangers based on this prompt.
I’ve learned new things about longtime friends & lovers using this prompt.
I’ve discovered things about myself responding to this prompt.
Back in 2020 I wrote a post about wanting credit for creating this prompt…and I learned a bunch of new things from the comments!
Anyway…
If you really knew me, you’d know….
I have horrible handwriting. Like really truly so awful I often can’t read my own writing. My mother has beautiful print she used for decades as an elementary school teacher, and also a lovely, looping script she writes with to this day. I envied the ‘cool girls’ in school who had beautiful handwriting & could make all the cool lettering in their notes. I think my handwriting felt like some part of my inner awkwardness made manifest in a way I could never hide.
Mango is my favorite fruit, but I rarely eat them because I am so often disappointed by store bought mangos. I still remember eating my first mango when I was seven years old. It was a mystical experience. I fell in love with the man who would be my boyfriend for 3 years when I was 19 over a stolen mango in the middle of the night. Once, in Hawaii, I spotted a ripe mango high up in a tree, as my ex-husband and I were driving past on a winding road. I called out for him to stop & I knocked it out of the tree with a stone. It was delicious.
Apparently I snore.
I always have about a billion ideas rolling around in my heart/mind. My brain, like my computer, always has at least 20 tabs open. My desk is *covered* in old envelopes, yellow legal pages, and bits of paper with (often cryptic) notes scribbled on them. I have several lengthy google docs of idea dumps filled with video teachings I want to make, articles I want to write, program ideas, teaching frameworks, etc… For my entire teaching & coaching career (over 20 years) a big part of my process is allowing myself to let go of projects. Sometimes I come back to ideas, sometimes I forget them, sometimes they come back to me.
My attention span, energy level, and memory aren’t what they used to be & I’m getting better at letting that be OK too.
I love toast. With lots of butter. And sometimes honey or jam. I wish I could eat toast all the time.
I’ve had a recurring dream my whole life that I’m trying to speak & no sound comes out. Sometimes I’m nearly screaming, but I can’t make a sound. For most of my life this dream centered around trying to express something to my mom & not being able to get any sound out. In the last 10 years or so I started having some version of a dream where I would be teaching, but, for a variety of reasons, the people can’t hear me. Often it would have to do with a space that had multiple rooms & I would be running through all the rooms trying to make sure everyone is getting the same facilitation instructions.
(Meanings around this are not lost on me 😛)
I am full of contradictions. I find humans so annoying & frustrating, and I also genuinely like & love humans. I am very judgemental & love being right, and genuinely have so much space for other people to be different & I have learned over the decades to enjoy being wrong (or at least allowing other people to also be right). I am generally fairly serious by nature & find nearly everything awe-inspiring, and I have a ridiculous & fairly silly sense of humor. I love memes & I have a very dark sense of humor I don’t share publicly because I think it might be off-putting to most people. I am actually very shy, but I love to talk & I love being in front of the room.
What would I know if I really knew you?
