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• the product of two very free spirits, stella has often wondered exactly how she came to be the result. her parents, peter and rose, have wandered through life in a carefree state, even through her younger brother's autism diagnosis and multiple miscarriages, while she obsesses and nitpicks over the smallest of things. she loves both of her parents as much as is humanly possible but a part of her will always remain jealous of their anxiety-free outlook.

• a second generation bibliophile, stella has been an admirer of literature for as long as she can remember. from obsessively reading dr. seuss as a child (and still as an adult, let's be real) to her parents introducing her to the classics at a young age, her appreciation for books has only grown as she has gotten older. they are undeniably her go-to when she is upset or needs a good chuckle to bring her out of a funk. while she may be attending college with eyes on the prize of a biology degree, her heart is set on taking over the family business from her parents one day and being around to help future generations cultivate a love of reading similar to her own.

• stella only has one real secret that she has worked hard to keep under lock and key. there are only two people outside of the family (and a list of medical professionals) that are aware that she became severely depressed as a side effect of her anxiety and attempted to overdose at age seventeen. thankfully, this led to a prescription regimen and a recommendation of therapy, though she only attended a few sessions before she convinced her parents to let her try just the medication for a while. keeping up with her xanax routine worked moderately well for both her social anxiety disorder and depression until late july 2015 when everything hit her again full force. following a particularly bad attack, she, begrudgingly, made the decision to get checked out again. this visit led to a change in medication (to zoloft) and it was recommended that she attend a cognitive behavioral therapy group once a week. she isn't a fan of talking about her issues, and even less so in front of her peers, but remains determined to improve.

• began journaling at at age fourteen and still frequently does so. the stacks of notebooks in her closet contain everything from brags to cathartic ramblings to short stories. to this day, she has never let a single soul read anything contained inside those pages.

• as a child, stella's maternal grandparents always made a big deal out of things like meteor showers and eclipses. they taught her to love the cosmos and beyond and often took her on day trips to planetariums as rewards for academic accomplishments. it's one of many reasons that her closest friends call her stellar (short for interstellar). to this day, she still gets excited when she sees a shooting star and could google photos all day long.

• stella has struggled for years with the ability to trust others due to her social anxiety disorder. more often than not, she is extremely wary of someone (especially a relative stranger) complimenting her or extending kindness as she believes it is a setup that will end in her being embarrassed or made fun of. even compliments from her family and closest friends typically are brushed off as she believes that they are just being used to placate her and make her refrain from being so self-critical of her appearance and actions.

• a very typical virgo, she very rarely discusses her feelings with someone else, and instead chooses to either let word vomit flow in the form of some cathartic journaling or lives in a state of denial where she convinces herself that her life is just peachy and she doesn't want to punch a pillow into submission. the inability to accurately convey her feelings has gotten her into trouble on more than one occasion as she will just it all bottle up until she explodes.

• after a suggestion from a friend, and a very lengthy conversation with her therapist, stella made the decision to begin researching emotional support dogs. this plan is temporarily on hold but she has definitely decided that she would benefit from the presence of one.

• stella got her first tattoo in october 2015 - a watercolor doe (right forearm) referencing her obsession with harry potter.

• following her relapse in the fall of 2015, stella took a year off from college to recover without stress. she is set to graduate with her bachelor's degree in the spring of 2017.

BIO SCI 199: independent study in bio sciences research
BIO SCI M118L: experimental microbiology lab

tv 30 rock, angel, are you being served?, as times goes by, bones, buffy the vampire slayer, ER, friends, game of thrones, ghost adventures, ghost brothers, ghost hunters, good behavior, keeping up appearances, law & order: svu, the office, orange is the new black, outlander, paranormal state, parks and recreation, the royals, sabrina the teenage witch, salem, sex and the city, sherlock, supernatural, wynonna earp, the x-files, ye olde classic sitcoms (mama's family, designing women, golden girls, etc.)

movies 10 things i hate about you, babe, bill & ted's excellent adventure, blackfish, captain america: civil war, captain america: the first avenger, captain america: the winter soldier, chicago, clueless, the dark knight, deadpool, dracula: dead and loving it, easy a, free willy, flipper, forrest gump, harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban, the help, inglourious basterds, jawbreaker, jurassic park, jurassic world, lilo & stitch, the lord of the rings: the return of the king, the lost world: jurassic park, miss congeniality, the princess bride, saving private ryan, sex and the city, twister

music avenged sevenfold, beyoncé, blink-182, death cab for cutie, ed sheeran, fall out boy, fleetwood mac, florence + the machine, green day, jimmy eat world, kings of leon, lady gaga, lana del rey, little mix, the lumineers, marilyn manson, nirvana, one direction, panic at the disco, paramore, rihanna, spice girls, tom petty & the heartbreakers