(no subject)

[transfiguration]

Maria Johansson was born an hour from Melbourne down on the edge of the Mornington Peninsula. As an only child to Patrick and Josephine Johansson, Maria grew up slightly spoiled, often getting what she wanted. Despite that, she knew what it was like at times to go without something. Both of her parents worked for nearly her entire childhood, so she was often left with babysitters who were much more demanding of her and less likely to give her the things that she wanted. All in all, this leveled out her parents behaviour so in the end she grew up well. Attending the local primary school, Maria enjoyed her classes and made a couple of good friends though she did like to believe the best of everyone, which as she grew older would sometimes come back to bite her as they started to use her for their own ends. It was there that she met Nicole, who would quickly go on to become her best friend, the two of them remaining incredibly close even today. While at first everything seemed perfect for Maria, as she started High School her parents marriage started to dissolve. For the majority of her first year at high school, her home life was just argument after argument and combined with moving to a new school along with all the other pressures of being a teenager, Maria found that she was hating life at that particular moment. At the end of her seventh year, her parents informed her that they were getting a divorce. She would spend the week with her mum, who moved to St Kilda and the weekends with her father who stayed in Seaford where the family had originally lived. Devastated as Maria had no desire to leave her friends or the life that she knew did the only thing she could think of and started to rebel against her parents. It wasn't all that extreme but she started to party, fall into the 'popular' crowd and started to drink as well as staying out later than she was supposed to much to her parents exasperation. Of course this didn't last all that long as Maria and her mother moved half way through the summer holidays which meant starting over again. For the rest of the holidays, Maria spent most of her time by herself exploring St Kilda - during the day, there was no way she would be allowed out at night, or talking and spending time with Nicole. Her mother enrolled her in Shelford Girls' Grammar School in Caufield, the next suburb over from them. Unfortunately this meant her mother had to work two jobs to afford to send her there but she believed it was the best for her daughter and her prospects. While at first, Maria wasn't a big fan of the school, especially coming in when she did, she soon settled in and made a couple of friends. It was here that Maria discovered her passion for art and drawing and would spend a lot of her free time in and around the parks of Melbourne sketching the landscapes that she could see. At school, she also did quite well at her subjects, the teachers pushing her up and beyond her normal standard, determined that she do the absolute best that she could. In the end, Maria graduated from Shelford with a VCE (Victorian Certificate of Education) mark of 98.15 a score she was incredibly happy with. From there she was accepted into Monash University's Facility of Education to study Creative Arts at a Primary Level. Having to travel down to the Mornington Peninsula to undertake this degree resulted in her meeting up with some of her childhood friends again. While she found that they had grown a part over the years it was good to see them again. She worked hard at her classes, determined to get a decent job in the art field and one closer to home as well - while she loved the Peninsula she didn't want to move down there again and it was too far to commute everyday- though she would if she absolutely had to. During her first year there she met Michael who was her first serious boyfriend, though she had a couple of others while at school. The two of them were going strong until she caught him in bed with one of her friends. That was the end of their relationship and her friendship with the other girl. After finishing her Bachelor Degree she managed to gain a job as the art teacher at St Kilda Primary School not too far from where she and her mum lived. After a couple of years she moved out and into a small apartment in Richmond, not that far from St Kilda. It was at one of her friends 24th's birthday's that she met ___ Wilder. The two of them hit off immediately and soon were dating. Two years later on her 26th birthday, he asked her to marry him and she agreed. The two of them were married in a small ceremony with only their closet friends and family six months later before moving into a small house in South Melbourne. The two of them lived a comfortable life for the next two years, while her mother pushed her to have children - she wanted to be a grandmother - the two of them had decided to wait for awhile. It was about six months ago though that they started talking about moving to the US, as ___ had be offered a job there. It took a lot of discussion but in the end they decided to give it a shot. Upon arriving she thankfully managed to find a job at a local primary school and they are now in the process of settling in to their new lives.