Hello, everyone. This is Raphael speaking. It is a pleasure to finally get to speak to all of you, and it is a pleasure to say that I will get plenty more chances to speak to everyone. I'm Alexandra's father figure personality, essentially--and I am proud to be. She is an extraordinary girl, and naturally, she is the subject of today's A to Z Challenge Post.
Yes, yes; we were hard-pressed to choose a subject for the letter A. Writing about the entirety of her life naturally seems like the thing to do for her very first A-Z Challenge Post--even if it is technically me writing it.
Well, shall we begin?
HER BIRTH AND INFANCY
Young Alexandra was born on March 31st, 1997. She, in fact, came into this world at approximately 12:05 AM. (This might be at least partially why she is such a night-owl.) While her mother was pregnant with her, Alexandra NEVER STOPPED WIGGLING. Her brother kicked, but Alex never stopped moving. (Except that one time when her mother electrocuted her. Hehe.)
(Hehe. It was funny.)
(I might not be a good parent.)
Anywho, Alexandra was continually up all night. She rarely, if ever, slept--and this drove her mother quite mad. In fact, petite Alex might have not made it fully through the baby stage if it wasn't for her smile. Alexandra's nickname became Firefly, because even at four or five am when her mother was about to shake her, her smile could light up the entire room.
That gift has never gone away.
Alexandra was also a girl whose first word was "up". She wanted to go UP. She wanted to be CARRIED. And carried she was--her blood father would actually go down the stairs, and carry her up them, just because she called his name. He'd drop everything to do that. She always had a talent for wrapping men around her fingers....
She was also very, very cute. Her brother could be wearing blue clothing, and people would still have a hard time guessing his gender--but she, even in the bluest of blue snow suits, was always a cute little girl. She's always had an aura of femininity, and that will never change.
Another thing that won't change is her love of reading.
You see, her mother had to impose a six book per night limit.
She loved being read to that much, and a person who loved reading to her was her grandfather. They were very close, even though Alexandra found it hard to be close to anyone.
He eventually passed away when she was seven or eight from pneumonia.
EARLY CHILDHOOD
Due to speech problems (she never quite learned how to pronounce several letters), she had a hard time making friends. She couldn't speak, and she eventually became too terrified to try--she hated repeating herself, and spent most of her time living inside her own head. Naturally, this means she created many stories (as well as us). She also never really had that many friends.
More on her poor social life in a minute; let's get back to telling stories.
She was, from the first time she could really speak to her parents, renowned family-wide for telling stories revolving around Shiny. 'Shiny' could refer to: Princesses, princes, horses, dragons, forests, castles, and kingdoms. (To make things even worse, she'd QUIZ her parents afterward! I still don't understand how she didn't break her parents....) These stories could also last around four hours.
I'm so very proud of her.
Back to her poor social life.
During her childhood--despite the ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE parties her family threw (that both her brother's class and her class were invited to) for each birthday and as an end-of-the-year celebration--she wasn't exactly popular with everyone. She hung out on her own, thinking and being lost inside her own mind. This led to her being bullied quite frequently--and for reasons that weren't her fault.
You see, she had a friend. His name was Lee, and he was very very quiet. In fact, he was a selective mute. He stared at people, smiling, more often than actually speaking--so he definitely needed someone to look after him. This someone was Alex, and doing this lost her any chance she might've had at actually having a social life.
She should have had a social life. From kindergarten all the way to the end of grade eight (a full decade), her family threw beyond amazing parties. They had: Jello wars, carnival games that you had to win (you earned poker chips from games and used the poker chips to buy food), Capture the Flag, people dressed up in diapers, sword fights using pool noodles while balancing on wooden beams....The parties were beyond amazing. But, people suck--and Alexandra was never really able to make friends.
Despite this, she still formed a healthy obsession with reading and writing--and dreamed of becoming an archaeologist and studying Egypt. She was FASCINATED by the Mummy Movies (which her father showed her when she was around five, as well as Blade and Resident Evil. An interesting fact is that, a few months ago, she tried to watch Blade again--and couldn't stomach it). She loved Egypt, and this is the primary reason her and her family went to Egypt when she was eleven.
ADOLESCENCE AND RIGHT BEFORE HIGH SCHOOL
Alexandra's grades weren't exactly the best. This is because she was so completely closed off that she doesn't exactly recall most of her early years--instead, she just remembers the day dreams she had. So, her grades weren't good--despite the fact that she is very intelligent.
There were a lot of things that happened.
She was bullied during her childhood, yes--but all the 'face washes' (having snow shoved in her face), or being laughed at and excluded, couldn't prepare her for grade seven.
Grade seven was difficult, and extraordinary. It was a life changing experience: She became a writer, a world traveler, and was beaten with a stick every day for six months. For most of those six months, she had bruises under her clothes she hid from her parents. She was too afraid and ashamed to ask for help, from anyone.
Even so, it would've been nice if someone would have helped her when her abuser was screaming insults at her from across the playground--loud enough for everyone (including teachers) to hear. "You're so fat that, when you go swimming, whales sing 'You are family!' " You're so ugly that, when you went bungee jumping, they put the hoop around your neck instead of your ankles!" "B*tch!" "C*nt!" "Whore!" "Skank!' "Dumby!" "Fatty!" "No one would care if you died!" "Slut! Your p*ssy's so loose the entire football team can screw you at the same time!"
That year might be why she's not exactly inclined to like people.
Despite that, she flourished. Her family went on a five week trip to Egypt, Germany, Italy, and Greece. She climbed one of the Pyramids at Giza. She rode camels. She saw King Tut. She explored the ruins of Pompeii. She climbed into holes, and crawled under ancient walls in total blackness--just because she could. She flirted with Egyptians. She danced and sang and grew and shone.
She was happy.
She also wrote a hundred-and-twenty-one page novel entitled For Freedom Shall I Die. It focuses on topics like gangs, rape, drug wars, depression, suicide, homosexuality, pedophilia, religious cults, and insanity.
What a cheery child.
HIGH SCHOOL TO PRESENT DAY
She's growing up so fast. Every day is a new life. Most of her story during this time is recorded on this blog and its precursor--Normal Ain't Normal at normalisonlyrelative.blogspot.ca and so I won't cover it too much.
She's written a huge amount. Multiple novels, and probably around a thousand poems. (We actually haven't kept track of that. But there's at least a third of her poems that haven't been posted). Her hands, naturally, have a steadily worsening issue with carpal tunnel and repetitive strain injuries.
There's not much left to say.
Here's a quick summary of her recent years:
- Stripped on cam for several months. She was fourteen, desperate for affection and attention, and so she mistook lust for love. She hated herself, and hated men--she still hasn't gotten better. In fact, married men would pant after her. Most males she knew, despite how much she relied on them for friendship, would (and did) leave her if she stopped camming.
- She had a huge amount of relationships online: Emily, who was her first female love and almost drove Alexandra insane with Emily's depression, suicide attempts, and cheating; Alexander, who was only dating her to keep her out of trouble and was, in fact, gay and screwing Alex's other friend; Adam, who is a decade older and started her on camming; and even more besides.
- She attempted suicide around three times.
- She had her life threatened four times because she knows too much about certain people.
- She fell in love with anime and manga.
- She watches way too many horror movies.
- She went on a trip, over the summer of 2013, to Amsterdam, Germany, Belgium, and France. Paris was pretty. She was hit on by a French man in Paris.
- While in Paris, she went down into the catacombs and was almost driven mad by the sounds of a voice screaming their hatred at their bones being turned into tourist attractions.
That should quite accurately cover all of Alexandra.
I love her deeply, and I'm so very proud of her. She's overcome many things, and she will continue to make me very proud.
This is Raphael, finishing the very first post of the 2014 April A-Z Blogging Challenge.
Nice to meet all of you.
Farewell,
Raphael.
