Synopsis

April 8th, 1988, a star is born.

Me and my little brother. We still pretty much look like that.

Or just a girl, slightly awkward, mostly confident, occasionally a loner, just as often a social butterfly, kind of a jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none type deal.

Fast-forward through school years, which she spent awkwardly trying to find the perfect balance between intelligent and nerdy, bossy and quality leadership, opinionated and open-minded, over achiever and laid back, ambitious and affable, creative and rule-oriented. Throw in a few sports, a few extracurricular activities, some family dramas and you have

TADA, Jessa the college student. A writer, a photographer, a philosopher, and a world traveler. I make no claims of excessive talent at anything, though sometimes I’m quite proud of a piece of writing or a photograph. I still have a lot to learn, hence why I’m forking out so much money to attend a private, weird school in Boston, MA. I’m a writing, philosophy, and photography student. And I’m in Honors because it pays half my tuition. Class of 2010!

Me and Chrissy being super cool while out BOWLING.

I travel a lot. I spent a semester overseas, and tend to take at least one trip overseas each summer. I typically travel by myself abroad.  When at home, hanging out with the friends doing nothing is just as fun, or annual roadtrips, the occasional party, and lots of live theatre or concerts.

I’ve waited tables, worked at Starbucks, and nannied.  This summer I am probably back to nannying, which I enjoy for the most part.

That said, I do accept cash, credit, or check donations.  Care packages are also valid.

That’s me watching the sun set over the moat of the castle in the Netherlands that I really did live in for four months. Life is hard.

I like dancing. In Boston, I go salsa dancing and am currently taking two jazz classes. I took some ballroom and latin club classes. I used to Irish step dance, though I haven’t since I left for college. I really miss it. I just find dancing overall enjoyable. I don’t make any claims to be good (in fact, I’m pretty awful at jazz), but I frequently dance in random places. On low brick walls, coffee tables, and walking along sidewalks. In the car. The kitchen. The living room. Bed.

Me and my friend Stef at earthfest in May.

I like sports, though again, I can’t really claim to be very good. I used to be GREAT at basketball and volleyball. Really, Olympic material. But it’s been a while and now I’m all short and curvy and all that, which gets in the way of athleticism. I go running every night in the middle of the night. I enjoy working out. Hip Hop workout videos are fun, but nothing beats Richard Simmons Sweating to the Oldies. Elipticals are fun.

I have some family; they’re cool. At home, I live with my mom, my stepdad, and my little brother Thomas. I’ve got a dad, too. And two older stepbrothers. A diabetic cat.  A weiner dog.  And my little brother’s and his girlfriend’s toy pom who is a frequent resident of our house.

That’s my dad. Clearly.

I’m a Christian. I mainly prefer to think non-denominational because denominations gets into the politics of religion which really bothers me. I usually attend/seek out Baptist churches, because it’s what i attended as a teenager. Christianity is NOT intellectual suicide. I have no problem discussing religion and theology and science. I’ve just discoved that usually the people who call Christians narrow-minded and stupid are actually better examples of such labels themselves. They rarely actually want to know what we believe and why. They just like the sound of their own voice.

I was a national competitor in speech and debate twice, but I quit that.  I’m basically on a quitting kick this year.  Or really, reprioritizing, weeding out the things in my life that don’t matter (so basically, if you are still in my life, you matter!) so that I can focus more on the things that DO: family, friends, writing, photography, and travel.

Me and the boyfriend, Frank.

I’m really bad at poetry. Sometimes I’m funny. I miss being involved in theatre, though I never thought I was really any good. I got laughs, though. I’d probably be incredible at directing, but I’ve decided NOT to pursue a theatre career except for playwriting. Maybe I’ll end back up there. I like to keep my eyes open to all the opportunities life has to offer.

I’m a Texan and insanely proud of it. I’m also an American and very proud of it. I think Americans are too quick to condemn themselves in global issues, and too quick to assume the world hates us. It doesn’t. The world has bigger fish to fry than whether Americans are arrogant enough. I mean, there are people who don’t have enough to eat and can’t sent their children to school; do you really think they care about how materialistic Americans are?

I get the career question a lot. What do you want to do? I want to travel and write and take pictures. I want to do travel writing and non-fiction writing. I want to do photojournalism and freelance photography. I want to visit everywhere in the world, meet the people, see how they interact with each other, find out what makes them tick, then make that real for people in other countries. I want to make people REAL to each other, despite national, cultural, or geoographical barriers.

Diana and Fidan out at dinner with me on my 21st birthday.  In September, we will all be moving in together.

I’m very strong in my convictions but actually quite open-minded. I like to hear what other people think and feel. I’ve said that already in various ways, but it’s true. Overall, people tend to annoy me, but individually I think people are beautiful and good and interesting. Every time stupidity or ignorance destroy my faith in humanity, random acts of kindness and compassion restore it. God hasn’t left us.

Biking in Germany.

Eh, I think I’m done with this page for now. My writing style on this page makes me sound really arrogant. I’m not; I promise. I’m just feeling too lazy right now to type full sentences, lol. I mean, arrogant people don’t even type “lol”. They’re too cool for internet slang. I’m not really too cool for anything except not doing your homework.

Check back on this page someday for the next time I need something to help my procrastinate writing a paper!

Also, I just noticed that I basically make faces in every picture of my.  Apologies.

I didn’t take this picture. I wasn’t there when it was taken. It’s a family portrait. So just pretend I’m in it. Because I was stranded in Achen, Germany, due to the train strike.

That’s me and Thomas all grown up. I’m 19 in this picture, hence the short hair, but it’s still one of my favorite photos of us together.