This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic, hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, is ten facts about yourself (bookish or otherwise). Since my blog is relatively new I thought this would be a good chance to tell you all a little bit about myself!

1. I’ve been reading since I was three years old (no, really). The earliest books I have memory of are my collection of Dr. Seuss books, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, and the Magic Tree House books. Before I started kindergarten, my mom told my teachers that I could already read but they didn’t believe her; they thought she just meant I could read a couple of words, not whole books. 

2. I was a very active kid and did a variety of sports growing up: soccer, dance, martial arts, softball, track and field, and ice hockey. The longest I stuck to one sport was hockey. I started playing when I was nine and continued into college, where I played all four years at a Division III school.

3. I was actually born in Clearwater, Florida. We moved to the Chicago area, where my dad is originally from, when I was five. 

4. I work as a nursing assistant on the mother/baby unit at a large hospital near me. I absolutely love my job! I already have a Bachelor degree in psychology, but I plan to go back to school in the fall to earn my BSN for nursing. When I graduate I want to work as a OB/GYN nurse on a high-risk obstetrics unit, and then eventually become a Certified Nurse Midwife. 

5. I have one tattoo (so far!) and I plan to get a couple more in the future. My name means “noble, strong, virtuous”. I got the Irish word for noble, uasal, in ogham on my left wrist.

6. During my senior year in college, I studied abroad for a semester at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. To this day, it is one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. If you’re able to, I highly recommend going abroad for a semester or year to everyone! I met amazing people, did incredibly things, and learned a lot about the world and myself.

7. I’m attempting to learn to speak Irish. Although I’m more Italian than Irish, I feel very connected to my Irish heritage for some reason. I’m not very good about sticking to the learning but I’ve still managed to pick up quite a bit fairly quickly. If anyone out there wants to learn a new language you should check out Duolingo! It’s amazing!

8. Besides having a large book library, I’m also an avid movie collector. I have hundreds of movies in my room. My favorite movies are The Departed, Pirates of the Caribbean, Twister, and Jurassic Park. I love hosting movie nights, but hate when people talk through the whole thing. A few comments, jokes, and questions are fine, but don’t have complete conversations or stare at your phone the whole time or I won’t invite you again!

9. I have a two year old Australian Shepherd named Reyna, who helped inspired the name of this blog, and we just got a 12 week old Siberian Husky named Balto.

10. My ultimate goal in life is to write a book. It doesn’t even need to be published. I have so many ideas that I’ve half-started and then can’t seem to continue with. I just want to be able to finish a whole novel.