Post by ELISA SYBIL MENJIVAR on Aug 25, 2013 12:31:25 GMT -8
| [atrb=style,width: 420px; background-color: efefef; background-image: url(http://24.media.tumblr.com/0478144b9f16c95a37367d1aca56b45c/tumblr_mkfax8tDxp1s97ldco1_500.png); padding: 5px, bTable] ELISA S. MENJIVAR TWENTY-FIVE | HETEROSEXUAL | AUTHOR | VISITOR | SAMANTHA BARKS THE INTERVIEW HELLO. THANKS FOR COMING IN TODAY. SHALL WE START WITH YOUR NAME? "Thanks, it's great to be here." She smiles and tucks a strand of hair behind her ear and takes a seat before smoothing her hands over her thighs, determined to straighten out the wrinkles that hadn't been there in the first place. "Well, my full name is Elisa Sybil Menjivar, which... it's definitely a lot to say." She glances around the office, her eyes resting on a few family portraits before she turns back to the woman. She was nice, Elisa had decided, and she had a pretty family. "Elisa isn't really very exciting. It doesn't mean anything in itself, is what I mean. It's derived from the name Elisabeth." She shrugs, as if she's apologizing for the mundane nature of her name. "Sybil, though? That's a little cooler. I hated it when I was in middle school, because it sounds like the kind of name an old lady would have, but I've come to terms with it now." She frowns down at a hangnail, carefully removing it before returning her gaze to the interviewer. "Sorry, I get distracted. Fairly easily, too. Sybil is a Greek name that means prophetess." She stares at the woman for a second, her eyebrows knotting together. "This is probably a waste of your time, actually. I doubt you're as interested in language and roots as I am." She waves a hand, dismissing everything she's just said. "I'll just get straight to it, then. Menjivar is, if you couldn't tell by the pronunciation, Spanish in origin. My great grandparents, on my father's side, are from El Salvador." Satisfied with her answer, she sits back in her seat and smiles. THAT'S A NICE NAME. WHAT DO YOU DO FOR A LIVING? This is the part of the interview where she begins to struggle, because there are two sides to her story: who she was before, and who she is now. She doesn't know which to tell, so she figures she might as well explain both. "Right, that's a good question. I went to school in Vermont, that's where I'm from." That hadn't been part of the question, but it was important to know, wasn't it? "I was an English major, with a concentration in literature." Writing had really been the only thing she was ever interested in, and she couldn't imagine doing anything else. She considers sharing this, but decides that it's too much fluff. Interviewers don't want fluff. They want answers. "I had thought I would go on to become an author after graduation, but instead, I started working at a well-known publishing company as an editor." At the time, editor had been the best possible job for her. She had the personality for it: headstrong, negotiation skills, refusing to take no for an answer when she found the perfect manuscript that just needed a few changes. "I worked my way up to senior editor status, actually." She tries her best not to start fidgeting in her seat, but she can't remember the last time in a few months she had sat still for this long. "Recently, though, I've been working as an author. After everything that's happened, it's the best place for me to be. I can work my own hours, I can take the time I need, and I can get my ideas out on paper." She shrugs, forcing herself to focus on the woman's face. "It's a lot slower than being an editor was, and I'm not cooped up in an office building. It's really great." INTERESTING. WHAT DO YOU DO FOR FUN? She frowns and begins considering her answer carefully. This is an odd interview, she thinks, because this woman keeps bouncing from topic to topic, but it's nothing she can't handle. "I like to go running," she offers, but Elisa doesn't think this really answers the question very well. "And if you couldn't infer from everything I had just said, I really enjoy writing." What kind of question is this? Has she signed up for some sort of dating show, and she didn't know it? Or worse, didn't remember it? She doubts that Kingston would be very pleased, if that was the case, but continues regardless. "I'm not really very good at talking about myself," she finally explains, but she still isn't satisfied with her answer. She doesn't know what to tell the woman. Saying that she loves sunshine, even though it's true, sounds almost too poetic, like she's trying to woo her with words. Saying she likes bugs is too strange. "I drink a lot of smoothies, too." That's not a hobby. This is a loaded question, she has decided, and she doesn't like it. She doesn't want to go into detail about her likes and dislikes, and this woman doesn't need to know what she does on a daily basis. Does she even care? Elisa highly doubts it. It doesn't seem that this is the first interview she has sat through today. She probably doesn't care about how much Elisa loves old movies, or her aversion to eating anything with squash in it. There isn't anything relevant she can think to say, so she sits and shrugs, flashes a smile. "I guess that's really it." WOULD YOU SAY THOSE ACTIVITIES REFLECT WHO YOU ARE? "Oh, definitely." There are two sides to this question as well, but she has decided that it would be best, for the purposes of the interview, to stick to who she is now. Before her accident, she was smart, successful, confident. She was still all of those things now, but she didn't let it get to her head like it had then; even though she was a businesswoman, she was far more professional and cold than had been necessary, at least in the office. It had started to creep into her personal life, though, and Elisa remembered hating that but thinking she was unable to do anything about it. Coming out of her coma, though, she'd had to think that she could have died. Was she happy with who she had been? No. Every day was a gift, and she needed to treat it as such- every interaction, good or bad. It was hard, but she tried. "I'm very active. At first it was just physical therapy, to rebuild the muscle I had lost, but it just carried into my everyday life. I like to be outside, running or just exploring." She smiles, hoping that her use of 'exploring' conveys her curiosity. "I'm also spiritual." She pauses and frowns, trying to think how she should elaborate on that, because she does need to. When most people hear spiritual, they think religious, and this isn't what she means. "I've tried to become very... in touch with who I am. I meditate at least once a day." She realizes now that this must sound crazy, because most people don't meditate, or if they do, don't tell others. "I think it's important to try to become the best you that you can be, and you can't do that without slowing down and reflecting." Satisfied with her explanation, she sits up a little straighter and smiles. "I like to think that I'm nice. I wasn't always," she admits with a grave look, "the nicest person, but that is definitely something I'm trying to change about myself." What else? She's fairly honest, she's creative, and a hard worker. She figures that she should probably list a negative trait, or else look very vain. "I'm not a team player. I can be kind of domineering? Ask King, he planned a wedding with me." She laughs and smooths her hair before sitting on her hands. "And I'm too picky for my own good." Sufficient. There are no other flaws she is comfortable sharing with this stranger, like her constant need to prove herself, or how some people think she's shallow. A COOL CAT LIKE YOU MUST HAVE A TON OF SUITORS FLOCKING TO YOU, HUH? She laughs at this question and shakes her head. "Oh, God, no." She waves her hand in the air dismissively. There isn't much to discuss here. "Kingston has my heart. He has since high school." It sounds juvenile, but that's the only way she can think to explain it. Instead, she holds up her left hand, displaying her engagement ring. "The car accident definitely set us back, as far as dates go, but it's a speed bump, is all." She has no doubt that she loves him more than anything in the world, and it shows. The look in her eye is softer than it has been the entire interview, unfocused. "Actually," she says, suddenly snapping back to the present, "he's coming to pick me up when in a few minutes, so if we could...?" She makes a circle in the air a few times, signifying that she wants to wrap this up as quickly as possible. She's excited to be with him again, instead of losing him forever. That was the first thing she thought when she surfaced from the dark and deep waters of the coma: I could have most him forever. If she didn't have him... she didn't know what she would have. COOL BEANS. THEY SAY YOUR FAMILY SHAPES WHO YOU ARE. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOURS? "I live with King." That is the first thing she says, because when she thinks of family, he is the first place that her mind goes. "I grew up in Vermont, with my parents and grandmother, who lived with us." She doesn't like talking to strangers about her family. It isn't that she doesn't get along with her family; she loves them, and they have been nothing but supportive of her for as long as she can remember. Family is just one of the things she prefers to keep private, especially in settings like an interview. "I'm an only child, and that's really it. King has a dog, now, which I was afraid of, at first, but we're all good now." AND YOUR LIFE? TELL ME ABOUT YOUR PAST. I'M EAGER TO HEAR. "Of course! Well, like I said, I was born and raised in Vermont." She gets homesick, sometimes, but it's better with King here. "I like to think I had a fairly average childhood. I was a little spoiled, but I always knew what I wanted, too. Even in elementary school, I was very competitive." She had gone to a large school, but always worked hard to outshine other students. Her parents hadn't pressured her; her ambition was all her own. "I was really happy, too. I had two parents that loved each other, a good amount of friends." She shrugs and fixes her hair, trying to think where she should go next. Elisa didnt have a particularly eventful life. "I was in high school when I met King. At first I wasn't sure, because I was focusing on other things- like my internship, or school work. Not boys." She laughs at this, her eyes lighting up at the memory. "I guess you can see how that worked out." She holds up her left hand again. "I got into one of the top schools in the state. I could have gone elsewhere, but I wanted to stay close to my mother, who was sick at the time." Elisa frowns. "Breast cancer. It was scary, but thankfully, she's considered a survivor now." That was probably one of the most trying ordeals she's ever lived through, but she stuck by her mother, even when she wanted to be anywhere but by her side. She can't watch people in pain, it's one of her flaws. She runs when things get hard. "I graduated college, started working at a publishing house right away. I worked hard, got a lot of promotions. I started planning my wedding." She blushes and looks away. "Things were going great, until my car accident. I was in a coma for a month. When I woke up, I spent a little time recovering, but then King moved us up here." She smiles again, glad to move on from the heavy part of her history. "I still have to go to PT every once in a while, and the three months or so before my accident is all a blurry mess, but I'm working on it." She doesn't know that there are holes in her memory that are protecting her from a painful truth. She doesn't remember the wedding, or the months before. She doesn't remember finding the letter, which seemed to point towards King cheating. She didn't remember how hard she had cried before writing a letter of her own, didn't remember jolting him, didn't remember moving on. She catches little glimpses every now and again, but other than that, she is clueless. What about a secret? Everyone has a secret. She smiles and tilts her head, looking amused with the question. "I don't really think I have anything to share." This is because the only real secret she has would jeopardize her relationship and her future. Her final year in university, she hadn't passed the final exam for one of her courses. In her ambition, she had been willing to do anything to be successful, including sleeping with her professor. She wasn't proud of it, and she still regrets cheating on the only man she's ever loved, but she can't change it. She shifts in her seat and smiles uncomfortably, waiting for the next question. ALRIGHT. TIME'S ALMOST UP. TELL ME ABOUT YOUR DREAMS. QUICK! She sighs and thinks long and hard about this question. Elisa has always been ambitious, but she doesn't want everything she used to want anymore. She was no longer an editor, and that kind of success had no appeal to her. "I guess my biggest goal right now would be to get married." She smiles at the woman and shakes her head, thinking how cheesy that must have sounded. "Eventually, I'd like a family." She hasn't had a chance to be around children, but she wants one or two of her own. Not now, but some time in the future. "I just want to have a long and happy life," she says, thinking that sums it up pretty well. Focus on her writing and family. AND THAT'S A WRAP. IT WAS NICE GETTING TO KNOW YOU. She smiles, nods, and stands, smoothing out any wrinkles as she does so. "You, too." She turns and leaves, shutting the door behind her before wandering out to the parking lot in search of King. BEHIND THE MASK ADDIE | 16 | EST | LOL | SAV MONROE ANNABEL DEVIN FIONA BRISBANE but she's so cute |
