As I look at the list of newcomers to KU for next fall, I try to see if any of the names jump out at me. Sometimes a simple name will invoke a story so I take it and go from there. Such is the case of Renita Gealy and Ciria Hynda.
Starting with Renita, I immediately felt like she had a rough past. I picked up on the vibes that she was from a strict household where she had expectations placed so highly on her that she was caving in. Immediately a story from people in my life came to mind which easily became the basis for a new story, Renita's story. Based off some submissions from the website Six Billion Secrets, which I read daily for inspiration and to catch the auras of the lives of others, a story came to light.
Basically, in summary, Renita's parents are quite literally forcing her to become a doctor. However, she really hates all the medical stuff and would really rather play the trombone and major in music. They refuse to support her at all so she makes her own money to keep her passion going. She also has secret help from her aunt (who would become Ciria) who is 9 years older than her and has traveled the exact same path, realized that life is about happiness, and took back control. Ciria becomes a source of inspiration for Renita and fuels her courage to tell her parents that she is no longer going to try and live up to their unobtainable expectations. This really doesn't go over well and when they find out that Renita is not going to AMU (the best medical university in Kiillaana) and is instead going to major in music they flip out and not only refuse to pay a cent (they would have paid for everything if she went with their plan) but they also disown her. Her parents are very rich and materialistic and are in constant competition with the neighbors and friends and cannot comprehend what they would say if they found out their daughter was not going into a rich profession.
After this happens, during Renita's winter break, she moves in with Ciria who lives nearby and makes all necessary plans to get scholarships needed for school. Renita plays Runescape to chat with others and to get away from the frustrations of her family life and one of her close friends (Robin Coulter) from the game, a trombone player himself, encourages her to audition for the university he attends (yes, he was quite brave for sharing that much personal info, but he did it over facebook and not Runescape). Ciria, who has taken up the saxophone since quitting the school of her parents' dreams, decides that she too wants to major in music and that it "sounds like fun" so she too prepares an audition and studies the basics of theory with Renita.
Ciria herself has a unique story as well. Growing up in the same situation as Renita, she was told by her parents that she would be an engineer so that's what she did. She met someone in college who noticed right away she wasn't happy and spoke some simple advice that would strike her at the very center of her heart. Halfway through her sophomore year of college she realized that she could do with her own life what she pleased so she "gave school the middle finger," dropped out, and enrolled in a comminuty college where she majored in medical assisting and became an assistant in a radiology office. She is almost 29 years old and single, having sensed very strongly that she was to remain in the town she lived in until a certain major event would happen (she is strongly of Osai). Renita moving in with her would prove to be this major event and the two would go on to audition and receive near-full rides to KU.
Renita has quite a lot of baggage from years of being labeled second best next to her older sister and younger brother. She never really felt like she fit into the family because, unlike her brother and sister, she was not a people-pleaser in any way. Her self esteem is very low because she refused to be fake in her rich town community and was outcast all the time. She became depressed and bottled up her frustrations and sadness for so long that she is no longer able to cry. Her father would yell up a storm if Renita got anything below an A in any class and her parents would hand-pick her class schedule for her. They manipulated her to do what they wanted by verbally abusing her and making her feel guilty for anything she did outside of their desires and it was only due to Ciria's mentoring that Renita survived until she turned 18 in September of 2011 and was able to freely move out and take control of her own life, something Ciria learned far too late.
These two join the Newcomers 2012 and I hope to include them in some capacity in the Lochgren Series.
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