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[10 Jan 2008|12:39pm] |
THE FREE SPIRIT
Vanessa Simone
Growing up in the strict, Roman Catholic, Genovese-Simone family was pretty unbearable for Vanessa - for the most part. Being the youngest of three, and the only daughter, made Vanessa the center of the family's attention whether she liked it or not. She was doted on, spoiled and could get away with anything she wanted. Her two older brothers looked out for her like two older Italian brothers would their little bambina, and that sure didn't make it easy for Vanessa - a free spirit since birth - to date or do anything that other normal teenage girls did in her neighborhood.
She grew up in West Bloomfield, an upper crust suburb north of Detroit and attended Regina High School, a Catholic, private, four year college preparatory high school for girls. It was there that Vanessa began what her parents would call, "the rebellious years". Some called it rebellion, she called it spreading her wings. And it wasn't that she was a thief or got bad grades or did drugs...no. Vanessa just couldn't sit still. She'd bus down to the high school every morning and would occasionally hop off and hitch-hike across to 8 Mile, where she'd take another bus that took her to downtown Detroit. She'd wander the Detroit Institute of Arts, ride the glass elevator of the Renaissance Building or hang out in Hart Plaza, watching the very dreary and lazy Detroit River. She also got to know a lot about her uncles and cousins, as they owned businesses other establishments in the downtown area. If she was hungry she'd visit her relatives pizza parlor or talk her way into a nicer restaurant for a free meal, where they were always welcoming her, a petite pretty brunette, with open arms.
After high school, Vanessa went away to Chicago for college and thrived in the windy city. It took her foerver to graduate it seemed, as she spent about five years there and barely declared a major. Finally deciding on psychology (the easy way out), she finished school & was ready to hit the world - to do what? She wasn't sure. Vanessa's parents, for a graduation gift, sent her to Italy for the summer to visit her extended family, and little did they know that she wouldn't return home for almost a year.
After the summer months and her vacation in Italia came to an end, she decided to spontaneously purchase a Europass with a few friends she'd met in Roma. This was all quite a surprise to her parents of course. For the next year, she traveled Europe - Germany, Austria, Spain, France, Belgium. Her parents were worried and threatened over and over again to cut off the credit card, but they never did. To Vanessa - this was life. Freedom to go anywhere, anytime and do whatever the hell she wanted to do. She missed her family, of course, and as her year was coming to a close she received devastating news from a very close friend back in Detroit. Her trek through Europe was over, fini; she had to fly home on the spot to be with him while he mourned the murder of his girlfriend.
That was a little over six months ago. Now, Vanessa is back home armed with a year's worth of amazing life experience, a college degree and a spirit that cannot be bottled up. As much as she loves her family and her friends, and knows she needs to be here for them, she's ansy...restless. She lives by the old saying, "Make Love, Not War" and although she's loyal to her family, she makes it known that she has a great distaste for all the shady dealings and happenings within her family & the Mcleans.
She's experimental with her sexuality and has no qualms about being with a woman or a man, although she prefers men. Occasional pot smoker. Working at a coffee house in trendy Royal Oak is where she spends most of her time, talking to the locals, the wanna-be's and the occasional tough-guy who walks through the door. All she wants to do is fly...
"She's a modern day hippie who will never settle down... "
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( Storylines - updated 2.2007 )
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