there are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn't true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true

Something that’s holding you back from achieving your dreams: 

    needing to have a job! If only I were independently wealthy, I could focus on the things that matter.

Something you think you could win an award for: 

    bipolar handwriting (either beautiful or unreadable & ugly), jigsaw puzzle assembly, or reading interests.

Something you fear:

    dying alone.

Something you wish people would understand: 

    all I have been before is not all that I will ever be. I've changed over time, and continue to change.

Something that keeps you going everyday: 

    caffeine

Something amazing that happened last summer: 

    I made a sort of half-assed, impromptu decision to sell my house, and it actually happened, just the way I would have scripted it

Something you hate that people say: 

    "doggo", "you could do anything if you put your mind to it", or trying to bargain on eBay over $.50

Something you refuse to pay money for: 

    name-brand windshield wash

Something you wish you could have told that person that you never saw again: 

    'I love you'—of course

Something that really stands out about last year: 

    changes

Something you like that everyone else thinks is weird: 

    chili dogs, apparently

Something you do when you’re trying to calm down: 

    doodle

Something you do when you wake up at three AM: 

    go back to sleep

Something amazing that’s happened this year: 

    in the evenings, sometimes, a little family of deer wanders through my back yard in search of food

Something you love doing on cold rainy days: 

    reading

Something you listen to when you’re in a really good mood: 

    I've been out of the music mode for quite a while. Playing the radio (!) in the car but that's about it.

Something that irritates you more than anything: 

    willful blindness

Something you’re addicted to: 

    Dot's pretzels

Something that really stands out about you: 

    my eyes

Something about you that’s like everyone else: 

    conflict between wanting money/things/security and wanting to be happy

Something that makes you change the channel: 

    insurance or cell provider commercials

Something you think about every night before you go to sleep: 

    nothing in particular

Something that you don’t think will ever change about you: 

    preferring writing to speaking

Something about you that you think will soon change: 

    I anticipate having a newly-renovated bathroom by month-end!

Something that broke your heart as a child: 

    what didn't? I've always been softhearted.

Something that really sparks your interest: 

    classic shipwrecks (e.g. Edmund Fitzgerald, Lusitania); neutrality in WWII; the Panama Canal; building a good pie crust; the interplay between mental illness, substance abuse, and talented writers; photography; and fire

Something that truly disgusts you: 

    winter road schmutz

Something the opposite gender has complimented you on lately: 

    my crooked smile

 

[from here and adapted; the title quotation is by Søren Kierkegaard]