Post by professor on Dec 20, 2010 2:23:08 GMT -5
chrysanthemum lily bryant.
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[/CENTER]TWENTY-NINE. STAFF. NEW ZEALAND. EVAN RACHEL WOOD. ADMIN EDIT.
don’t criticize what you can’t understand.
My mother was obsessed with flowers. It didn’t take anyone long to figure that out. As a child she would spend hours at a time in the field picking daisies and roses and then press them in books. Later in life she became a botanist with a greenhouse that covered the entire roof of our home. Eventually, she had five daughters, all named after flowers. What I don’t get, is why someone didn’t intervene after she named her first daughter Iris Heather Lilac (all flower names mind you)? Or maybe that made sense, but when she named her second daughter Daisy Rose? How about Dahlia Daffodil? Then there was Narcissus Delphinium, followed by me, Chrysanthemum Lily. We’re all lucky to have been born girls; God only knows what our names would have been if we were men. Needless to say, by the time I was eight, my mother was dragged off to a mental institution for observation. The anger we felt about our names kept us from being upset to see her leave. Well that coupled with the fact that she cared about her flowers more than she did her children. Who were named after flowers. I’m sure you already know we were teased relentlessly as children. Honestly, I would have teased me.
Growing up was difficult. My dad had a position high up in the government so he wasn’t ever really home. After my mother got dragged off to a mental institution, a nanny raised my sisters and I until Iris was old enough to help take care of us. She didn’t really resent having to spend most of her time around little kids, actually she enjoyed it. Most of her life she’d enjoyed kids. It was no surprise to anyone when she got married and started popping out kids. As of last July she had four. Daisy, on the other hand, hated having to take care of the younger three girls. She was a bit of a rebel and caused our father a bit of problems, when he was around at least. He traveled almost constantly and when he was home he was tired or working on paper work. It almost felt like the five of us were on our own half the time. That was okay though, because that was how we liked it. Iris cleaned the house, Dahlia would cook, Narcissus would do laundry, and I would help wherever I was needed. When Daisy did feel like helping with the family, she would go shopping; often though, she wasn’t even home. Our little family of five got along just fine though. It was a nice treat to have our father home, but we didn’t expect it. At one point we began to suspect he was having an affair. He would come home from work dishelmed and sometimes with lipstick on his collar. Though my mother wasn’t my favorite person, it still angered me that he would do that. Eventually he divorced our mother and married the other woman. Basically, she was a crazy, young and after our father’s money.
Shortly after our father married the witch, our group of five was split up and shipped to boarding schools. Most of us behaved, but Daisy and I had trouble staying at one place. Before we were out of school, we’d switched schools at least six times. I had problems fitting in with the other kids. When they’d point out my obviously crappy name, I had a tendency to get defensive, angry, and sometimes violent. After being threatened with military school, I straightened up and stuck it out at one school until I finished. The teachers were mediocre and often boring. At one point I found myself wanting to create an environment where people would actually enjoy learning, so maybe they would try. It was during my senior year that I decided that I’d go into teaching. I figured I couldn’t be any worse than the teachers I’d had in my life. They were horrible and from what I gathered, none of my sisters had any better. Luckily, none of them had to deal with it for as long as I did. By the time I finished school, I thought boarding schools were designed by those who hated children and wished to torture them. I probably wasn’t far off with that idea either.
Originally my family had wealth, and plenty of it. After my father married the witch Selena Marie, we lost a considerable amount of our money. She decided she wanted a boat and a condo in the Caribbean along with an extravagant wardrobe. It didn’t take too terribly long for her to empty my fathers’ bank account; all the while he was too absorbed with her plastic looks to realize what she was really after. After all, when they got married my father was forty-eight and she was twenty-four. If he ever stopped to do the math he could have saved his wallet a considerably painful experience. While I was away at boarding school, she wasted his money away. Though my eldest sisters attempted to warn him, he merely pushed them away and shushed them. By the time I returned home at the end of my senior year, my family was broke and in debt and Selena was filing for a divorce. My father mourned the loss of his wife as I mourned the loss of my college fund. I’d been so excited to attend college and now I had no money to do so.
The next few years were filled with actions that I’m not proud of. In an attempt to earn money to go to college, I took up an assortment of odd jobs. Weekdays I worked at a deli, weeknights I was a bartender at a local club, and weekends I modeled and danced – not as a stripper, thank god. Though my sisters offered to pitch in money to pay for my college tuition, I knew none of them really had enough and they wanted to start families; they needed their money. The odd jobs were exciting and I enjoyed them greatly. After two years of working hard and long days, I finally had enough to attend college, something that I was incredibly happy about.
College passed uneventfully. Halfway through my sophomore year I figured out what I wanted to teach and major in. Due to the insane nature of my family, I thought it would be interesting to take a psych class to see if I could figure out what was wrong with everyone. In that class I fell in love with psychology and realized that was what I wanted to teach. Four years later I had my degree and was out of college. I still had a little money saved up from working before and during college so I spent a year traveling. The money didn’t get me too far so I ended up hitchhiking and backpacking a lot. It really was a wonder how I didn’t get picked up by an axe murder and killed. I was a beautiful – if not drop dead gorgeous – fresh out of college kid traveling through Europe on my own. Despite all of the dangers I endured, I did see a lot. I fell in love with the European land and wished desperately to move there. Since I’d used up all of my money, I had to return to New Zealand and regroup. I lived in a small shack like apartment for a few months until I was offered a job at a local high school. I enjoyed teaching and I mixed things up, trying to make the experience more enjoyable for the students.
I was often called unconventional by other teachers and a TILF by the students, though they never thought I heard. It wasn’t uncommon for me to criticize my students in class, though it was always to point something psychological out, or go on field trips to a local restaurant or mall to experiment. Class was an open discussion and I encouraged my students to speak their mind freely. Unlike many of the other teachers at the school, I didn’t have seating charts and I didn’t force the students to follow every rule – rather I often encouraged them to break a rule and live a little. Though they did have projects and homework, it was interesting – like creating a group video depicting a psychological disorder. Many parents complimented me for actually teaching their students something or for sparking an interest in their kid. Along with the compliments, my teaching style received many angry remarks. Two years after receiving my job, I was fired for having an unconventional teaching style.
Not much time passed before I got a letter in the mail from Kostine Academy requesting that I teach psychology there. After hearing that it was located in Ireland I was beyond ready to go (the excellent pay is just a wonderful bonus). I packed up my possessions and quickly left for Kostine. Though I was sad to leave my sisters and their families, I was happy to embark on a new adventure and teach where my unconventional style was welcome.
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jenn. 16. pacific. Five years ? pm email.
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