Introducing Annie

Hello, lovely readers 🙂 I was trying to decide what to blog about today and I was struck by a startling realization: I’ve yet to complete an “about me” post!  All I’ve done is ramble on about reading and writing and such without so much as a basic introduction.  I am a southern lady if nothing else and it would be rather rude of me to continue without a proper salutation.

Let’s start with the easy stuff: my name is Anne Elizabeth Earnshaw, but I go by Annie.  I was named after my grandmother (Anne) and great-grandmother (Elizabeth), but the nickname Annie comes from a million places.  My mom’s favorite movie is “Father of the Bride” and the protagonist’s name is Annie, so I suppose that’s the most prominent reference.

I was born and raised in Charlotte, North Carolina and love the Queen City, but I want to live somewhere else after I graduate.  I want to teach high school English (until this whole writing thing takes off), so there’s not a specific place for me to live after I’m certified.  This excites and scares me because, while I can go anywhere, that means I have to choose a place out of million places.  Of all the places I’ve seen so far, I’d love to live in Denver, Annapolis, Boston, or of course New York.

I first visited New York with my mom when I was sixteen and I fell in love.  I expected to be overwhelmed, but the pace of the city was so refreshing.  There’s so much happening, so much to be seen and heard that I quickly came to peace with the idea of being one in several million.  Charlotte’s not a small hamlet by any measure so I have a sense of my place in the world, but I loved the anonymity of New York.  If I can’t live there, I at least want to take advantage of the continental study programs offered by my university and spend a semester there.

I also love my school.  I’m heading to Elon University (it’s okay if you’ve never heard of it–most people haven’t) as a freshman and I cannot contain my excitement.  I was beyond lucky to be accepted into the honors program and, even though I’ve got my work cut out for me, I cannot wait.  Campus is beautiful, the people are kind and welcoming, and the English department seems fabulous.  What else could a girl want?

The two things I want most of all are these: to see my work in print and to like my writing as much as other people seem to.  The former seems much easier than the latter.  My most prominent challenge as a writer is to write without judgment, to produce without questioning myself (I wrote about my struggles when writing here).  I’ve found some tactics that help, but I don’t know if I’m ever going to truly enjoy my writing.  Regardless, I’ll keep trying.

I’m an organized person but at the same time I’m very haphazard.  I keep my bookshelf in pristine condition, but I doubt there will come a day when there’s not a basket of clean, unfolded laundry on my floor.  My planner is orderly and I make my bed every day, but I can never seem to put my hair ties back in their drawer after I use them.

My hair is something pretty unique to me, at least in my opinion.  Without sun exposure, it’s very deep brown that almost looks black at the roots.  I used to hate the wavy, beachy texture of my hair, but I love it now.  When I was in middle school, I would beg my mom to let me get keratin treatments on my hair to straighten it, but I’m glad she didn’t let me.  I’m planning on cutting my hair to collarbone length (it’s grown like a foot past my shoulders) before I go to school and I can’t wait to chop it all off.

When it comes to makeup, I’m a less-is-more kind of girl.  During second semester of senior year, I went weeks in a row without wearing a swipe of makeup to school and it was amazing.  I wear contacts and it was so nice being able to rub my eyes without smudging my eye shadow.  Because I took a makeup hiatus, I got more sleep (still not enough, but more than I was getting before) and it strangely boosted my confidence.  It took away my fear of people seeing me bare-faced because my natural self was what they came to expect.  It also made people notice when I wore makeup, which was kind of fun.

So that’s it!  I just realized how random and willy-nilly this post is, but I think it’s reflective of me and my thought processes (and I thought this would be more interesting than a quiz about my favorite this and favorite that).  What do we have in common?  Let me know in the comments below!

And of course don’t forget to check out my Twitter, Pinterest, Goodreads, Wattpad, and Spotify to share some social media love <3