Chris tagged me

      One of my favorite people of all time, Mr. Chris Alexander, tagged me last week, meaning that I must write 8 interesting or little-known things about myself.
      I rarely ever pass on such tags to others, but I do feel obligated to respond. This is grossly long, I know, but I'm a wordy gal. So shoot me.

      1. I’ve always done naturally very well with grammar and writing. This luckily extends itself to learning other languages rather easily. French, however, I have managed to learn and forget, in its entirety, twice. I took 4 years in high school which culminated with a summer exchange in France. During my exchange, I lived with a French family, spoke French 24/7 and I felt very confident in both my speaking and reading skills. I didn’t take French for 2 years after graduation and somehow managed to forget the majority of what I had learned, which was frustrating, so I then took 3 accelerated semesters at BYU, which was the equivalent of 6 years in high school, and got myself back up to par. Unfortunately for French, I was then called on a Spanish speaking mission to Argentina, and Spanish became my primary language for quite some time. I was hoping to hold on to my bi-lingual abilities, but alas- French and Spanish are just too similar, so I’d start a sentence in French, and end it in Spanish. I can still read and understand most French, but I am afraid that it’s just not applicable enough of a language for me to retain it for more than 2 years.
      2. I have ridiculously bendy fingers, thumbs, and shoulder joints. Many people find this to be gross, but I don’t go around poo-pooing those whose fingers or thumbs don’t curl while attempting to point straight or whose shoulder doesn't allow their arm to rotate in strange ways, so I think people should get off my back.
      3. Most people who know me know that I have had arthritis since I was in grade school, but few know that the accompanying scoliosis caused me to have to wear a horrible brace for a few months when I was 9 to straighten out my back. The brace was an arm sling which had a strap that wrapped around my whole body and bound my arm to my side, thus causing me to hold my spine differently. But the way it looked led people to thinking more along the lines of broken arm as opposed to jacked-up back. My 4th grade cohorts at school could see that my arm was not broken because I still moved it frequently, and they couldn’t pronounce scoliosis nor did they know what it was, so they all decided I was faking it to get attention and teased me accordingly.
      4. I once went to the most expensive back specialist in Portland for treatment for my Ankylosing Spondylitis (which Sam affectionately calls “Anklesocks Spandexitis”). Even as a 5th grader, I was excited to finally get the treatment I needed from such specialized and trained professionals. I was rather disillusioned, however, when the nurse who was prepping me for the doctor coming in asked (totally seriously), “I see you have Ankylosing Spondylitis, which ankle is it in?”. Yeah, for those who don’t know, it’s a horrible arthritis that primarily affects your spine, back, and immune system- so this lady lost my confidence from the get-go. If we lived in a society that tips nurses, she would have lost her tip for sure.
      5. My full name is Lorilynn Elizabeth Burkman (a tongue twister, I know). I got my first name because it is a combination of my aunt Lori’s name, and my mom Linda’s name. Elizabeth wound up being my middle name because my dad’s mom had been hounding my mom to name one of her children Elizabeth, since Grandma Ball always wanted to use the name but never had a girl, but my mom didn’t like the name, so she gave it to me as a middle name.
      6. I graduated from BYU with 45 extra credits (a year and a half worth). I wish I could say it’s because I’m so incredibly smart, but really, it’s a result of poor planning and an overwhelming need to change my major 4 times before sticking with one. I stuck with English because I found it to be the most encompassing of everything that interests me, and it’s also the one I’m best at with the least amount of effort.
      7. I wrote my senior capstone thesis on, “The Influence of the Classic Poets Theocritus, Virgil, Horace, Catullus, and Lucretius on Robert Frost; New England Poet”. That probably sounds horrifically boring to anyone else, but Robert Frost totally rocks, and so do those classic poets, so it was awesome to be able to see the parallels between such great poets. It was 65 pages long and I got an A on it which meant I also got an A in my capstone class. I rarely get A’s in classes; I had horrible attendance so I was more of a B+ or A- student. But I really loved my thesis and everything I learned in that class, so I’m glad that I got a good grade where it actually really mattered.
      8. I’ve never been an extremely outwardly spiritual person, so many people have been surprised in the past when they find out I am actually deeply spiritual and it shapes most everything I do. It took me a long time to understand for myself what God’s plan is and what my part is in it, and I refuse to commit to something that I can’t follow through on- so it took me the majority of my teenage years to study enough to finally understand and accept the full gospel. Once I made the commitment, however- it’s guided my life ever since. I’d have to say that all the happiness I now enjoy in my wonderful marriage and whatever successes I may have achieved really come from living the restored gospel, and it definitely is my biggest source of happiness. On my mission, it absolutely killed me to work with people who say they know that the church is true and made commitments because they were intrigued by the promises that come from living faithfully, but then bailed on doing their part to keep their baptismal, temple, or marriage covenants because it's a bother in day-to-day application. I have deep respect for anyone who is committed to their religion, whether they’re mormon, bhuddist, muslim, born-again, or catholic- it doesn’t matter, but apathy is endlessly frustrating to me. I know we're all learning and growing and I have tons to work on myself, so I do all I can to love people no matter what and just try to focus on my own spirituality without applying judgement to others (I'm pretty sure that's God's job, not mine)- but my beliefs are the most important and influential things in my life, so I can't help the fact that it somehow hurts my feelings when I see someone else who professes to believe the same, yet chooses to not treat it with respect. I know I shouldn't take other people's actions personally, but after being a missionary- it's much harder not to care or want to help.