Tag, I'm It: 6 Things You Don't Know About Me

Regular blog reader Stephanie has tagged me on the subject of "6 Things You Don't Know About Me." Here goes:

1. I come from a long line of horse people on my father's side. My great-grandfather James Smith farmed with horses, and was the local lay "horse doc" in his part of rural North Dakota. His son and my grandpa, Francis Smith, often went along with him in the buggy as he went to treat horses, and picked up a lot of what he knew. When I was growing up, we always called Grandpa before we called any vet. He raised ponies before he got into Appaloosas, and gave each family of grandchildren a pony of their own. My dad, Jim Smith, raised and showed horses, and was a popular horse show judge. My three brothers and I were all active with horses as kids; one brother, Mark Smith, still raises and shows horses.

2. I was first published when I was 8 years old, with a little story and accompanying drawing that I sent in to "Appaloosa News." That is also where I got my first fulltime job at a horse magazine, after graduating from college.

3. My early education was fairly unusual, in that I went to a small-town school with two and three grades to a teacher's room. When the teacher worked with one grade in her room, the kids in the other grade sat and studied. This meant that you more or less went through each grade at least two times, because you couldn't help overhearing the other class's lesson as you were sitting there. The school went up to eighth grade, and I never had more than eight kids in my grade.

4. I put myself through college, with the help of a scholarship I earned in a contest sponsored by the North Dakota Newspaper Association. My winning article was about the horseman who helped bring the National Finals High School Rodeo to our town. (Notice the one-track mind on journalistic material?)

5. My first college degree was a BA, with a double major in journalism (no surprise) and Russian studies. This is because I didn't set out to work on horse magazines. I wanted to become a foreign correspondent. When I got the "Appaloosa News" job, I thought, "OK, this will be a fun thing to do until my real career comes along." Little did I know that it would BE my real career. I also have a BSEd degree, emphasis secondary education with an English major.

6. My personality type, based on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is INTJ. Which means I'm introverted (I), intuitive (N), a thinking-based decision maker (T), and a judger (J) who prefers order and conclusions to open-ended, always-evolving stuff.