My Background
(in Case You're Curious)

Life

So far, I've led a very regular, if unfocused, sort of life. Born in São Paulo, Brazil, Catholic by default. Good childhood; had fun, along with an adequate amount of traumas and parental issues, as most people. Never poor, but money was usually tight, although we did go through some short periods of abundance. Moved a few times, went through college, worked a couple of jobs in Brazil before coming to the U.S., where I worked at a Brazilian travel agency in Miami, FL. One fine day, I traveled to Mexico with some friends and there I met the man who later became my husband, an American from Georgia who was also visiting, and who lived in Orlando, FL, at the time. I moved to Orlando, we got married, I had a few jobs, no kids and two dogs we treated as kids. We traveled to several countries through his work. I changed careers, we grew apart; he wanted to move to another state, I wanted to stay with my friends, family, new job. We got divorced, but as far as divorces go, mine was as good as it gets. My ex-husband and I remain very good friends. Since then, I've had a few relationships, which I endeavor to call learning experiences.

As you see, I never chose anything hugely dramatic to happen in my life, although I often managed to create huge dramas out of small, everyday issues; had to have my DDD (Daily Drama Dosage)! Of course, having a relatively uneventful life also made me feel that I was lazy; just another slacker choosing the easy way out.

I have been described as being a relatively simple person in a very complex and over-analytical kind of way. It's not that I don't have plenty of good qualities, but at times it felt to me that what I considered to be my negative qualities (if we are allowed to believe in negative and positive, and all that stuff) had such intense moments that they kind of rendered the good qualities null and void... This point of view is probably also due to the good old DDD way of looking at things.

My communications skills very frequently left to be desired, and I probably could have used a good anger management class in those times. Whenever I found myself in a tough spot and tried to think in terms of "what love would do," as recommended by many of our time's gurus, my automatic reaction was to want to cease any relationships with the persons or situations I was having the issues with. Forgiveness was an inconsistent process for me, to say the least.

Oh, and did I mention I also used to be a big whiner? (Now I'm just a little one.) My motto used to be: "It ain't worth doing if you can't whine about it." So much for keeping a positive attitude. Although I have to say I was a functional whiner: I always rolled up my sleeves in the end and got stuff done; I just complained a lot throughout the process.