Post by andi ! on Jan 24, 2009 8:09:20 GMT -5
* leah elizabeth dawson monroe ,
[/center]all we are, we are[/font]
full name:[/color]
“Leah Elizabeth Dawson Monroe.”
nicknames:[/color]
“Leah’s fine, thanks. I suppose I should initially introduce myself to students as ‘Miss Monroe,’ but I find the whole formal salutation thing to be a bit… stifling. So I plan on allowing my students to call my by my first name. I mean, some students may not be comfortable with that, which is fine; I just want them to know that they have the option.”
age:
“Twenty-four.”
date of birth:
“December 27, 1984”
grade level:
“I’m actually a teacher. I just got out of grad school to get my certification, and now I’m free to teach art as I please. I majored in art with a focus in contemporary study and minored in psychology. I also took a lot of philosophy courses, but was three credits short of a minor in that. So basically, I teach art.”[/blockquote][/size]
that face in the mirror[/font]
hair:“My hair’s pretty long, and dirty blonde. Well, blonde, technically. But I thought it looked boring, and college is the time for experimenting, after all. So my junior year in college, I got some darker lo-lights. And I thought it made me look a bit more interesting, less girl-next-door-y. So I’ve kept them up ever since.”
eyes:“Brown. Nothing much interesting to say there. I consider my eyes to be my most boring feature, followed by my ears. I’ve always hated my ears.”
height:“I’m pretty average height; five foot six. I guess that’s kind of tall, but I don’t stand out, or anything, and I don’t know anyone more than half a foot shorter than me. So I consider myself to be of average height.”
weight:“Um, don’t take this the wrong way, but I’m pretty sure I’m not comfortable sharing my weight. I’m average to slim, I suppose; make of that what you will.”
blood type:“I’m B-, just like my mom.”
distinguishing features:“I’ve been told that my most distinguishing feature is my nose; every guy I’ve ever dated has told me how adorable it is. But I like my teeth. And after four years of braces in two two-year periods over the course of my middle school and high school education and years of retainers, I’ve worked hard for them.”
play-by:“I’ve been told I look kind of like this model, Ilze Bajare. But I looked up pictures – she’s totally prettier than me. But I have nicer teeth.”
the person behind that mask[/font]
likes:[/color] control
| ambiguity
| art
| meeting people
| getting my way
| philosophy
| talking
| psychology
| randomness
| sex
| english
| teaching
| being pretty
| history[/ul]
dislikes:
| math
| losing
| romance
| science
| not being in control
| not getting my way[/ul]
strengths:
| persuasion (especially over guys)
| art
| talking in a way that sounds pretty[/ul]
weaknesses:
| talking in a way that makes sense
| cursing too much
| forgetful[/ul]
personality evaluation:
“Well, that’s a hard one. Um, I don’t know how you want me to describe myself, or whatever. Well, I think I’m a pretty nice person. But I mean, everyone wants to think about themselves that way, so that doesn’t tell you much. I had a philosophy obsession in college, so just stating my perceptions of myself won’t cut it. I could draw you a picture; that would be so much easier. I could psychoanalyze someone else, but describing yourself is so much harder. And so much less honest, since most people just want to see the best in themselves. I should probably just do it, and stop procrastinating, hm?[/blockquote][/size]
NICE “Yeah, I’m sure everyone thinks of themselves as ‘nice.’ So I’m sorry that that doesn’t tell you much. I’m not one of those obnoxiously nice people; I don’t go out of my way to make everyone around me happy, and I would never claim to be a totally selfless person. But I’m not mean, and I get along with people well enough. And if I know someone, and care about them, then I’d probably be more inclined to consider how my actions affect them, and what I could do to make them happy. It’s not that I don’t try to be nice to everyone, because I do. I just don’t put my own happiness on the line to make every random stranger I encounter happy, because the only level of happiness that I can truly control is my own. And being nice to someone I don’t know, going out of my way to ask how a stranger’s day has been, is not only a bit creepy, but probably wouldn’t make them any happier of a person. Man, can I rant.
OUTGOING “I don’t really have many inhibitions. I like making friends and talking to people. So I do. I’ve always been a bit of a partier, and I’d be the girl in high school and college that would get completely wasted and dance on the table. I curse like a sailor most of the time, and I’m not afraid to curse in front of my students (though, as it is my first year, I should probably protect my job and settle down on that a bit). My friends have said that I need to be put on a leash, that I could probably use a muzzle. And I’m probably too flirtatious for my own good. Sometimes I can’t even tell I’m doing it; I guess I’m just a naturally sensual person. Sensual or sexual, I’m not sure what the difference is. Anyway, I got off topic. I’m the kind of person who would strike up a conversation with the nearest breathing, two-legged creature about absolutely nothing for lack of anything else to do.
WILD “I probably sound like I would make an awful teacher at this point, and this addition certainly won’t help that. I’ll get on to why I think I’d make a good teacher later; lets focus on why you wouldn’t think of me as one. Like I said before, I’m not very inhibited or reserved. I mean, I won’t fuck anything on two legs. But, well, I have been known to put out on the first date. Probably because I’ve kind of given up on the whole romance thing. I know that I’m pretty. And because I am, that tends to be all a guy sees. Half the time, I wish I was ugly, so that I would know when a guy really likes me. Because now, I can’t tell them from the ones that just want to jump me. I realized this about sophomore year, right after I got boobs. So I figured, I might as well use what I’ve got. So yeah, I tend to use my appearance to my advantage. And no, I don’t really date; I have a strict three-date policy, i.e., I will not go out with any guy for more than three dates. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen that movie, I forget the name, but Patrick Dempsey plays the guy who falls in love with his best friend and she wants him to be the maid of honor at her wedding. But some of my friends have compared me to him before he realized that he was in love with her. Which is totally off topic and unrelated. Sorry.
CONTROL-FREAK “I like being in control; end of story. I guess that’s kind of where the guy things comes in. Because if I decide that I want to jump them, than they’re not taking control over me when they want nothing more than that, no real relationship. And I always end the relationship. I guess it’s kind of what led to me being a teacher, too; or at least, it didn’t impede the decision. It makes me the authority figure. And then I can run my classroom my way.
INARTICULATE “This might be one of my worse qualities. Because I think I’m smart, most of the time. And I can be good at wording what I want to say, a lot of the time. I guess ‘inarticulate’ wasn’t really the word I was looking for. Then again, that misspeak might prove otherwise. But I tend to speak in a very random, roundabout fashion without much of a purpose. I say obscure things for the sake of confusing people, use big words I barely understand because I like how they sound and the direction they pull my sentences into. I though about majoring in English because I do love it, but I could never cut it teaching English. My students would mock my awkward grasp on the language, my random, inexperienced choosing of words. But I have fun, and that’s really all that matters. I like talking, even if sometimes I totally throw people off with my lack of direction and random choice of words.
LAID-BACK “Overall, I think I’m a pretty chill person. I don’t get too stressed out about things, I’m not easy to upset or anger, and I’m just very low-maintenance. Though, I won’t say that I don’t spend a lot of time getting dressed in the morning, because I do. I probably wear too much make-up, and I might wear too skimpy clothing for a teacher. But then I have days where I’ll just run to the art room, chopsticks in a messy bun, wearing paint covered jeans and a baggy sweatshirt and no make-up. That’s not often, just when I’m feeling so creative that I can’t sit still. But, back to my point. I’m easy to get along with, I think. I don’t expect much of people, and I don’t get agitated when people fail to meet my low expectations. I guess, a lot of the time, I really just don’t care. But when I do, I act like I don’t. I’m not sure why. If I were psychoanalyzing myself, I’d probably say some shit like, ‘letting people know that they’ve disappointed me gives them power over me. So I always act like what they do doesn’t matter, because then I’m in control.’ But I’m trying to not psychoanalyze myself, so I’ll leave that alone.
STUBBORN “I am impossibly stubborn; ask my brother, he’ll confirm that for you. Like I said, I’m a bit of a control freak, and I just can’t handle when things don’t go my way. I don’t give up easily. I always stick to the premise that I’m right, even eons after being proven wrong. I like being right, wining, getting my way. But in all honesty, who doesn’t?
LOUD “I’m a pretty loud, outspoken person. As I said before, I’m talkative, and I’ll talk about anything and everything. And I’ll probably do it loudly, mostly out of habit. I’ll talk to anyone, strike up random conversations with even more random people. I got into a very long conversation the other guy with a guy at the deli about life on Mars, which eventually spun out into who had the bigger feet. He won.”
we get by on little victories[/font]
hometown:“I lived in Cape Town, South Africa until I was seven, and Savannah, Georgia ever since. But I consider both to be my hometowns.”
mother:“Elizabeth Marilyn Hollander Monroe; fifty-three; sales representative.”
father:“Jackson Pierce Monroe; fifty-three; stock broker.”
siblings:“Mark Christophe Monroe; age thirty; engineer.”
history:“I went to Stewart, years and years ago. And I know that for some reason, it seems to be a breeding ground for drama. But I really haven’t had very much of it. I guess being around so many drama-ridden people made me want to get as far away from it as possible, or something. My parents are still married, and the only person I’ve ever known who has died was my great grandmother, and she was ninety-seven; anyone could have predicted that that had been coming. Plus, I barely knew the woman. But that’s not the point. What I’m trying to get at is that, in all honesty, I’ve led a fairly bland life, especially in comparison to other people I went to high school with, and even people I know now. So I apologize if this quick summation of my twenty-four (almost twenty-five) years on the planet bores you to tears. It honestly wasn’t my intent.
“I was born in Cape Town, South Africa. My father is a stock broker, and he had just been transferred to South Africa. But South Africa isn’t like the other places in Africa I’ve been to; it’s the most developed country on the continent, has a great tourism revenue, and is actually mostly made up of British settlers, generations later. He and my mother were originally from the U.S. They met at George Washington University; he was an economics major, and she was a business major. Who would have thought they’d turn out an artistic child like me? They’d already had my brother, Mark. He was six when I was born. My brother and I have a pretty dysfunctional relationship. We’re friends half of the time, and hurling curses at each other the other half. Out parents have had to intervene in our fights, they can get so bad. But when we get along, we get along great. It’s a pretty bipolar thing, really.
“Anyway, my dad was only supposed to go to South Africa for five years; we wound up staying for seven. Then we moved back to where my parents had been living before they’d moved, where Mark was born: Savannah, Georgia. Needless to say, I have about the weirdest accent you’ve ever heard. It’s part English, part African, part Southern, and tinted with a New York flair from years of schooling there, which I’ll get to in due time. But I have a rather original accent, to say the very least. I started at local elementary school in Georgia. When I started middle school, and Mark was a senior in high school, my dad’s job started doing much better. It had never been particularly bad; we were always considered fairly well-off. And with my mother’s side job as a sales rep. for a paper industry, we’d never gone without anything we needed. But now my parents not only had enough to send my brother to a great school (he wound up going to Georgia Tech), which had been a bit of a concern, but could send me to private school, to. So they shipped me off to Stewart Boarding School in seventh grade, where I stayed until college.
“This would be where things got a bit interesting. My mom had this friend, Eleanor. And they were pretty close; close enough that our families were friends. Eleanor was like, my second mom. And her husband and my dad would hang out. It was great, having another group of people we were so close with. And they had two sons, Nicholas and William. Nicholas was eight years older than me, and William thirteen. So William intimidated me a bit. I mean, I liked him and all. But for the most part, he hung out with Mark more than he did me. Mark was two years younger than Nicholas, but for some reason, he always kind of drifted towards the older male. Which left me and Nicholas. He babysat me a few times, and he looked out for me. He was like my second brother. William was already in college when we moved back to Georgia anyway, so we didn’t see as much of him. But I was depressed when Nicholas ran off to college when I was ten. But when I got to Stewart, he had already graduated, and he was teaching English there.
“I didn’t make this discovery until I was seventeen; junior year. That was his first year, actually. And it was kind of weird. I mean, calling him by his last name, having him as a teacher. I hadn’t seen him since he went off to college; I’d actually seen more of William. Our moms were still friends, but we were both busy with school. Mark didn’t see much of the whole Darcy crew, either, but he was so into his engineering that he wouldn’t have noticed of William had strutted into his lab and laid an egg. That brother of mine really does work too hard. But anyway. Junior year, I had the new English teacher, Mr. Darcy. I kind of laughed about the fact that he had the last name as my old family friends, but didn’t put much thought into it. Until first day of Lit junior year, because lo and behold, it was Nicholas Darcy. I nearly peed my pants.
“Maybe it was because that last time I had seen him I was ten and prepubescent. But hell, I didn’t remember him being that attractive. I don’t think he realized I was me until he took attendance; he seemed to do a bit of a double-take, but I might have imagined it. And then it turned out that he had my free period. So I started going to his office during my free and hanging out with him, catching up and stuff. It started off a little awkward, just because neither of us had expected it. But we had some kind of connection, something deeper than I remembered from when I was younger, probably because I still believed in the Tooth Fairy. There was like, a palpable vibe. Halfway through our second free period bull session, I wanted to lean across the table and kiss him. I refrained, but barely.
“And one day, I just couldn’t take it anymore. I’d never been so attracted to someone in my life, and I knew he felt it to. And it didn’t hurt that my boyfriend of seven months happened to break up with me that first week back at school. I was lonely, and depressed, and wildly attracted to my English teacher. And neither of the two teachers he shared an office with had my free period off. So I went in the room to talk to him. And after a bit of flirting, mostly on my part, I accidentally closed the door with my foot. I think he knew I was going to kiss him. He didn’t try to stop me, so I assumed he wanted me to. So I did.
“Next thing I knew, we were dating. No one knew, of course; he could lose his job, fooling around with a student. I didn’t tell a soul. Though I think my best friend, Jane, figured it out. Because I had a wild crush on the football player, Rick, the year before. And in November, he asked me out, and I said no. I think Jane at least got that I was dating someone and not telling her, but she didn’t say a word. She and I are still friends, by the way. She’s in med school. But, as I was saying, it was totally on the down low. We’d meet in bathrooms, closets, his office, outside of school. I was seventeen, so it would have been legal. If he hadn’t been my teacher, of course. But neither of us felt like we were doing anything wrong; at least I didn’t.
“Our relationship was… hard to describe. We’d known each other so long, and liked each other so much, that it couldn’t possibly be a casual thing. I didn’t date or kiss a high school boy junior or senior years, and I don’t think Nicholas ever did anything with anyone else. We never said that we would be totally committed or anything; the circumstances were too odd. But nothing else really mattered. I started doing worse in English so that I’d have an excuse to go to my office, so I had a legitimate excuse for my friends when they asked why I spent so much of my time in the English department. I wasn’t really bad at English, though. It’s actually always been my second best subject, after art. Then history.
“I lost my virginity to Nicholas, and then I graduated. We kind of drifted apart that summer. I don’t even know how it happened. Maybe the idea of my going to college freaked him out, since he was already in and out of college. Maybe he didn’t want to be tied down. Nothing really changed, we just started talking less and less frequently. We both went to our separate homes for the summer break, and he came to say goodbye when I went off to Pratt. We exchanged a few emails, and gradually, more time would pass between each one, until one of us just didn’t reply. I don’t remember who it was. I knew that he’d always be there as a friends, and I’d clearly see him again. But romantically-speaking, it looked like that had ended, and I don’t think either of us were too broken up about it.
“I loved Pratt. I graduated at twenty-two with my art and psychology degrees, and decided that I wanted to teach. So did my boyfriend of the time, Brad. We both went to SUNY and got our teaching certification in two years. We broke up a few months into SUNY, but we’re still friends. He was my second most serious relationship, after Nicholas. Other than that, most of my relationships have been more like flings. First dates, hook-ups, sex encounters, nothing more substantial. This past summer, I started looking for a job teaching art. That was when my favorite art teacher every, Lucinda Halpert, called me up. We’d kept in touch, because she honestly was my favorite teacher in all of my years of schooling. She told me she was going on maternity leave, and was looking for someone to take over her art classes at Stewart. It would likely be a permanent thing, as the art department was getting more popular and there weren’t enough teachers to meet the demands of the student body. Of course, I accepted. And now I’m going to be starting at Stewart, teaching alongside Nicholas Darcy, of all people. This should be interesting.”