I’ve got two of them. I have two Birthdays. I have two English names. I even have two Blood types.

I have two birthdays. One is in the start sign of Cancer and the other is in Gemini. If you are interested in horoscope, you probably know that Gemini is interested in any new things, very creative, and very changeable, doesn’t follow rules at all, but Cancer is quite opposite. It likes to stay at home for daily routines, being a dutiful wife and loving mother. But while both of them are in me, you probably can imagine how many struggles I have to go through.

Most of you know my name is Karen. Karen only represents half of me. There’s a very important person called Ginny-lives inside. Ginny is like the gas pedal, it goes forward for any challenges, while Karen operates like brakes. It controls when to slow down.

When I am Ginny, I liked to take new challenges. I liked to go on adventures. I’ve heard how Jessica carried her bag and went to Australia alone, where she met her Mr. right. How romantic!! Although I didn’t meet my husband this way, when I was a senior in University, after taking a semester of German, ( that's about 4 months), I decided to explore Germany on my own during my winter vacation. A passport, a German-English dictionary, and very limited budget from my part time job, I started my adventure in Germany. During the trip in a train, I met a French guy; he had a similar dictionary as mine, except his is French-German one. We were both curious about each other, so we start to chat. But in which language??? That’s the funny part. His German is as lousy as mine. He used his French-German dictionary to find the German word and I used my German to English dictionary to find the English meaning. That's how we communicate with each other.

I have been to a lot of States in America. I have been to most of European Countries, north up to Germany all the way down to Italy, Portugal and Sspain. The farthest countries I have been to are Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay in South America, it took me more than 30 hours of flying. Surely, I had a lot of adventures during all these trips.

Now as I my first name Karen sounds like, - Parent. Yes, now I am a parent, and that’s my new challenge and it’s the most challenging task I’ve ever got. My first kid is great, except she doesn’t like to eat since she was a baby. I’ve tried to use any means that other parents taught me, but she still chooses to challenge me till I gave up trying.

Thanks to God, my 2^nd daughter has an amazing great appetizer except she was too energetic, she is always the last one to bed, which is almost 11 o’clock and the first one wakes up, when about 5 o’clock. And that’s not all, during mid-night, she is checking if I am sleeping besides her by calling ma-mi, ma-mi. So I wake up more than 3 times a night. Some of you may say that Karen is so slim. Yes, that’s how I keep myself in shape. You probably can’t believe that I have lost 22 KG after giving birth to the 2^nd baby.

The most magical one is the blood type. Believe or not, I've got two blood types as well. One is A and the other is O. I still remember how the nurse squeezed my ear to get the blood drops for blood testing. I am not sure if anyone of you is in my generation, in which the blood type was printed in one of the ID column. There was an “A” in my ID, so I believed I was a type A person, so I tried very hard to play the role of being a type A person, being shy most of the time, sitting quietly in classrooms, being responsible to whatever I do. Everything was going well till one day, when I was pregnant for 4 months and the doctor suggested me to have the blood test to see if the fetus is healthy. After 1 week, as scheduled I was there for seeing the report. The doctor told me my blood type is not “A” but “O”. I said, “O (oh!)”, there must be something wrong with it. So the doctor checked again, the next time while seeing the report, the result is still same – O. So from that day on, I have to convince myself that I am a type O person. I got to be outgoing, ambitious, and pro-active in whatever I do.

No matter which one is the real one, they surely leave a great impact in my life. So Linda, our most respectful VPE, next time when you ask me for any assignments, if the answer is a “ Yes!” right away, then it’s definitely Ginny, blood type O, star sign Gemini. But don’t be disappointed if I become hesitating to take assignments, then you know that’s Karen, blood type A, star sign Cancer. Start from today, you can call me Karen G. or Ginny K. No matter which one you choose, I am always here to be one of your good friends; to share your ups and downs; to grow wiser with you in Fluency.