What word or words best describe you?

When I was a kid, one word best described me – SHY. Here is where most people who know me now give a choked laugh. Yes, I was one of those kids who wouldn’t shake the preacher’s hand after church, who wouldn’t pay for her own apple pie at McDonald’s, and who would rather squeeze her legs shut and pray that she could hold the gallon of water she just drank than ask a salesperson where the ladies’ room was located.

Today, the last word anyone would ever use to describe me is shy, even though I really am.

One word that has always stuck with me, even from childhood is INDEPENDENT. My parents taught me that if I wanted something or needed something done to not wait around for others, do it yourself. Here I am at the wise age of never you mind, and I am still independent. Perfect example is that while I could have hired someone to paint the interior of my house and it would have been done a lot sooner, I am just as capable and could get the satisfaction of saying, “I did it.” Every day I wake up and see my Caliente Red dining room walls and I smile because I painted those four coats, painted the bright white baseboards, arches, and crown molding, and even caulked afterwards.

Starting a few years back, I heard the words ENIGMA, PARADOX, RENAISSANCE WOMAN as the prevalent descriptors for my personality and me. I’ll be honest, I looked at these people with my brows furrowed in complete disbelief and thought, “Are you kidding me?” These are people I know well and they think I’m a mystery, a contradiction, and a woman with a wide-ranging intellect. It’s funny, but I hear these three words even more often today.

While I still believe “what you see is what you get” when it comes to me, I can see where some of these words may apply. Here’s this little blonde woman who by day manages a team of software engineers and is considered kickass at work then she goes home at night to write fiction curled up in her favorite jeans either sitting on her deck listening to the roller coaster or sitting in front of her fireplace. Then on the weekends, she tucks her mass of blonde hair underneath a Boston Sox cap, throws on the ugliest shorts or trashiest jeans she owns just to go outside and get her hands dirty by playing in the garden or attempting to do things in the house that many people either would leave be or would hire someone.

To this end, I tell you that I am all of the above and am the better for it because I have reached a balance…or almost. Sometimes the scale tips one way more than another, but it also always tips back.

So – what words best describe you? Why?