legal name Tressa Gold date of birth April 18, 1993 hometown Newark, New Jersey residence Williamsburg, Brooklyn relationship status Single (divorce pending) personality ENFJ - aries lines
SOME CHILDREN ARE PRAYED FOR, SOUGHT AFTER, DREAMED ABOUT AND EVEN CHERISHED, BUT THE SAD REALITY IS THAT NOT ALL CHILDREN ARE CONSIDERED BLESSINGS. TRESSA WAS ONE OF THOSE UNFORTUNATE CHILDREN. THE DELIVERY WAS EASY, AS WAS THE RECOVERY, AND HER MOTHER PASSED TRESSA OFF TO A "CLOSE FRIEND" AFTER BEING DISCHARGED FROM THE HOSPITAL. THE CLOSE FRIEND HAPPENED TO BE TRESSA'S FATHER'S SISTER, WHO TURNED OUT TO BE A BITTER AND ANGRY WOMAN THAT LET HER OWN FERTILITY ISSUES FESTER UNTIL RESENTMENT WAS THE EMOTION RUNNING IN THE FOREFRONT OF HER RELATIONSHIP WITH TRESSA.

ANGEL'S DEATH AT HER DAUGHTER'S TENDER AGE OF TWO YEARS OLD WAS A TURNING POINT IN THE TODDLER'S LIFE. ALL CUSTODIAL RIGHTS WERE GRANTED TO THE AUNT AND THE DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES CLOSED THE CASE WITH FINALITY THAT WAS ULTIMATELY DOOMING. THE CASE WORKER FIRMLY BELIEVED THAT ANGEL'S DEATH FROM A HEROIN OVERDOSE WAS IN TRESSA'S BEST INTEREST. QUITE POSSIBLE, BUT CERTAINLY NOT THE CASE. HER CHILDHOOD WAS WROUGHT WITH SCREAMING, ARGUMENTS THAT SHE DIDN'T UNDERSTAND, PUNISHMENTS FOR CRIMES SHE DIDN'T COMMIT. THE AM/FM RADIO, THE ONLY ELECTRONIC SHE WAS GRANTED, WAS WHERE SHE COULD CLOSE HER EYES AND FIND SOLACE, ESCAPE TO A WORLD THAT BELONGED ONLY TO HER.

TRESSA'S PERSONALITY WAS STIFLED FOR THE BETTER MAJORITY OF HER TIME IN HER AUNT'S HOME; HOWEVER, LATE IN JUNIOR HIGH AND THE EARLY MOMENTS OF HIGH SCHOOL BROUGHT ABOUT A TIME IN HER LIFE WHEN TRESSA BEGAN TO DEVELOP HERSELF. THE THINGS THAT SHE LIKED WERE EASILY RECOGNIZED; MUSIC, WRITING (ESPECIALLY IN HER COMPOSITION NOTEBOOKS), HANGING OUT LATE AT NIGHT WITH HER FRIENDS, SKETCHING AND CREATING IMAGES WITH CHARCOAL. THESE THINGS, OF COURSE, WERE MET WITH ANIMOSITY FROM HER AUNT AND CAUSED AN INCREASING AMOUNT OF FIGHTS.

I TOOK YOU IN WHEN NO ONE ELSE WANTED YOU, SHE WOULD SCREAM AS BLOW AFTER BLOW LANDED ON TRESSA'S SHOULDERS AND THE SIDE OF HER HEAD. YOU OWE ME YOUR LIFE, SHE WOULD WHISPER TO TRESSA IN PUBLIC. THE ONLY REASON YOU'RE ALIVE IS BECAUSE OF ME, SHE WOULD TELL TRESSA AFTER HER ALCOHOLIC BOYFRIEND POURED HIMSELF OUT OF TRESSA'S TINY BEDROOM.

ALL THE NEGATIVE EMOTIONS SWIRLING INSIDE TRESSA CAME TO A HEAD WHEN SHE WAS SIXTEEN. THE PHYSICAL ALTERCATION WAS BAD, IT LEFT HER AUNT WITH A SMASHED AND BRUISED MOUTH, JAGGED AND CHIPPED OFF TEETH, AND A BROKEN NOSE THAT PROFUSELY LEAKED BLOOD. TRESSA'S LAST MEMORY OF HER AUNT, WHO SHE VEHEMENTLY DENIES RELATION TO, WAS HER CLUTCHING HER BLEEDING FACE AND WAILING THE SAME SENTENCE OVER AND OVER: I WILL KILL YOU. IT WAS MORE THAN AN IDLE THREAT, TOO; TRESSA WENT INTO THE CUSTODY OF THE STATE FOR SIX MONTHS, UNTIL A PUBLIC DEFENDANT COULD GET HER EMANCIPATED. SEVENTEEN AND ON HER OWN IN QUEENS, NEW YORK CITY WAS A TERRIFYING NEW ADVENTURE.

RESILIENT, THOUGH, TRESSA SCRAMBLED TO FIND ANY AND ALL ODD JOBS TO BOOST HER INCOME SINCE THE LITTLE COFFEE SHOP SHE WAS WORKING THE COUNTER AT WASN'T CUTTING IT. SHE MADE ENOUGH TO BUY FOOD TO KEEP FROM STARVING, USUALLY, AND THE SOUP KITCHEN WELCOMED HER WHEN SHE HER MONEY WENT MORE TOWARDS CIGARETTES AND LIQUOR. SHE LEARNED HOW TO COUCH SURF, SHE MET OTHER YOUTHS IN SIMILAR SITUATIONS, SHE WENT TO HER FIRST LIVE CONCERT AFTER SAVING PENNIES FOR MONTHS. ALL IN ALL, EVEN TAKING THE BAD TIMES, IT WAS A LOT BETTER THAN THE HOUSE SHE HAD COME FROM.

AFTER SHE TURNED EIGHTEEN, THINGS SEEMED TO IMPROVE IN SMALL WAYS, BUT IN WAYS THAT SEEMED TO VASTLY IMPACT HER LIFE. TRESSA WAS ELIGIBLE FOR A WIDER SCOPE OF JOBS AND SHE WAS HIRED ON AT A VETERINARIAN'S CLINIC TO WORK THE FRONT DESK. THAT ONE ADJUSTMENT TO HER EMPLOYMENT, ALONG WITH HER AGE, ENABLED HER TO MOVE INTO HER VERY OWN HOME. THE APARTMENT WAS SCARCELY DECORATED, MOSTLY DUE TO HER NOT BEING TALENTED IN THE DEPARTMENT OF INTERIOR DESIGN, BUT SHE IS PROUD OF THE SPACE. IT LACKED A COUCH, BUT THE PEOPLE CLOSE ENOUGH TO HER TO BE INVITED OVER ARE COMFORTABLE LOUNGING ON HER BED WITH HER.

OVER THE COURSE OF THE YEARS, TRESSA'S DEVELOPED HERSELF EDUCATIONALLY AND MUSICALLY. SHE'S TAKEN SEVERAL CLASSES THAT INTEREST ASPIRING MUSICIANS, SHE'S SWITCHED UP HER PART-TIME JOB AND HER ODD JOBS TO KEEP HERSELF ENTERTAINED, AND SHE'S MADE SURE TO KEEP HER INDIVIDUALITY IN TACT INSTEAD OF LETTING THE HARSH REALITY OF ADULTHOOD BEAT IT OUT OF HER. AFTER FOUR YEARS AT THE VETERINARIAN'S CLINIC, SHE GRADUATED - IF YOU WILL - TO A RECEPTIONIST POSITION IN A PEDIATRIC'S OFFICE. IT WASN'T ONLY A STEP UP IN THE PROFESSIONAL WORLD, BUT IT WAS A STEP UP IN PAY AS WELL. TWENTY-TWO YEARS OLD, TRESSA IS HAPPY TO SUBMERGE HERSELF IN WORK AND, MOST IMPORTANTLY, MUSIC. IT'S ONE HELL OF A RIDE.

trivia
  • Both parents are out of her life; the dead one lives in her chest and the felon lives in her nightmares. She dwells heavily on her mother, treasuring her possessions and writings and old clothes. Her "sperm donor" is not missed in the least, as he is serving a stint at Rikers for felony drug charges and a rape conviction.

  • Her band, The Mites, has been and always will be her passion project. There has been a lot of turn over with bassists and drummers, but things seem to have finally settled onto a stable foundation after gaining Matty as a bassist and co-writer and Reese as a drummer. Lennon is their manager. Felix is their main roadie.

  • Aries: independent, generous, passionate, optimistic, enthusiastic, courageous, moody, short tempered, self-involved, impulsive, impatient.
  • ENFJ: tolerant, reliable, charismastic, natural leader, altruistic, overly idealistic, too selfless, too sensitive, fluctuating self esteem, struggles to make big decisions.

  • Mustic quickly, and at a young age, became an escape for tressa and she gravitated toward rock and roll. A positive influence in her life, a friend's mother, was reformed from the music scene and told her wonderfully imaginative stories, showed her unbelievable pictures. Tressa was hooked to the culture. She would sneak and listen to AC/DC, Metallica, and Nirvana so she wouldn't get caught.

  • Tressa only has a few tattoos at the moment; that's a tiny, tiny black star on her second rib on her right side. Her departed mother's name was "Angel," and somehow a star symbolizes that to Tressa perfectly. The other is along the curve of her ribs and underside of her breast, which reads in cursive, "we can plant a house, we can build a tree." She has a lion on her index finger for a reason, also.

  • The word pothead does not begin to do Tressa's marijuana consumption justice. She's been described as a monotone Seth Rogan when she's especially high. It relaxes her and takes the edge off of her anxiety. She prefers medicating her depression and anxiety with marijuana over taking her prescription for Xanax. In all honesty, though, it's rare that Tressa isn't at least a little buzzed. Even if it's just a hit from the one hitter she keeps in her wallet (yes, seriously).

  • Other drugs that Tressa enjoys, but doesn't indulge in frequently: cocaine, molly, and valium. Pain killers and acid make her sick to her stomach. Heroin is something she experimented with briefly (18 months) but put down due to a close call with her life and her mother's history with it. Meth has never and will never interest her.

  • Tressa owns three guitars. The newest guitar is thirty year old guitar that she doesn't know much about, beyond the fact that it belonged to her mother; Tressa got it in January of 2015. Her guitar was given to her by the mother of one of her high school friends. Said mother had been a groupie for Metallica "back in her day" and one of the band members gave it to her when she decided to settle down and start a family. It's, by far, the most used of all three guitars. The second is a bass guitar that, while she loves it, she doesn't give it nearly as much attention as the other two.

  • Cosmetics are something that Tressa is extremely particular about. Not just the brands, but the organization. She has a set of Alex 9 drawers from Ikea and her make up is organized by undertones and then by lightest to darkest. This goes for everything from foundation, eyeshadows, to highlighters. Her bronzers and blushes are organized together. All her z-palettes of eyeshadows are organized extremely intensely and she prefers no one touch them. Obsessive compulsive disorder in full swing, but only when it's regarding the cosmetics.

  • Pancake art is definitely one of her most hidden talents. She learned to tinker with the way pancakes looked when she lived alone at the age of nineteen and didn't have any food in the house but sugar, flour, eggs, and milk. Life was rough on her at the time, but she likes to think she walked away with a cool skill.

  • Conspiracy theories, unsolved crimes, ridiculous lists of ridiculous facts are some of Tressa's favorite ways to spend time. She also spends a lot of time debating over which documentaries to watch on Netflix. She has an insatiable desire to know every "weirdest pictures with terrifying backstories" and "scariest places that actually exist". Facebook and the typically irritated sponsored articles literally give her life.

  • he relocated from Newark to New York at the age of seventeen, while she was fighting to get emancipated from her aunt and "uncle." Her lifelong best friend, Enrique's, death promopted the move and she's never looked back or considered moving back home. Enrique not being in Newark anymore means there is nothing left for her there. She speaks quietly and infrequently about his death.

  • Children are Tressa's ultimate weakness. While she's never dreamed about being pregnant or fantasized about naming a child, she develops strong bonds with the children in her life and that frequent the clinic she works in. If she had a choice on how to become a parent, her first choice would be fostering a child and her second would be to adopt a child that would otherwise be thrown into the ever failing system.

  • Marriage was never a concept that Tressa believed in. She's beginning to slowly change her mind, but it's a long and hard road. She's always felt like a piece of paper couldn't solidify a relationship or keep someone faithful. As she evolves as a person and as a woman, her mind has started to become more open to the notion.

  • Tressa is ultimately a nice person with rough edges, but she oftentimes is taken quite literally when she shouldn't be and she finds herself not being taken at all when she is dead serious. Her tone reads awful through text unless you know her very well. She states her opinion, doesn't often budge on it, and has no problem setting someone straight if they rub her wrong or push her. On the flip side, though, Tressa is very rational and tries to always take the high road if she feels she has the choice. She is loyal, honest to her own demise, and protective. Her heart and capacity for compassion is vast and open to the world, but she tends to be selective in who she considers a "close" friend. She's a self proclaimed specialist in human nature.

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