Ming Robinson

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VoltTurtle
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Ming Robinson

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Name: Ming Robinson
Gender: Female
Age: 18
Grade: 12
School: George Hunter High School
Hobbies and Interests: Literature, writing, theater, Buddhism

Appearance: Ming is short (5'2") and relatively skinny for her height (105 pounds). Ming has an hourglass figure, with balanced bust and hips and a defined waist. Her body has a soft appearance, due to her muscles having little to no definition as a result of her generally sedentary lifestyle. She is light skinned and of Chinese descent. Her hair is black and medium length, sitting about an inch above her shoulders, and is kept in a bob cut. Her face is round shaped, with a small nose and soft features. She has no piercings. She has upright, proper posture in public, but takes on a more relaxed posture in the company of friends. Her eyes are almond shaped and brown. When using makeup, she tends to use dark eye makeup and crimson lipstick along with a light amount of foundation.

Ming's normal casual attire consists of a black tank top, skinny jeans, and white converse shoes. She is nearly always found wearing a necklace adorned with the Buddhist dharmachakra. When it comes to more formal occasions, Ming can be found wearing a dark cardigan along with a black, flared skirt and high heels.

Biography: Ming is one of two children under the care of Jordan and Carol Robinson, the other child being her adoptive brother Chao. Ming was born in Beijing, China to unknown parents. Shortly after her birth, she was abandoned by her mother at a government orphanage, becoming a ward of the state. She spent the first year of her life in this orphanage, being cared for by government workers in relatively poor conditions, before she was adopted by the  Robinsons.

The Robinsons had wanted children for a while, but Carol had issues with infertility, so they elected to adopt instead of having biological children. They ultimately decided to adopt a baby girl from China, since they both knew of the large number of abandoned baby girls that China had due to their one child policy.

Once her adoption was processed by Chinese officials and her citizenship granted by the United States, Ming was transported from the orphanage in China to the Robinsons' home in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The Robinsons were firmly upper class, with both Jordan and Carol working in the local hospital as a primary care doctor and cardiac surgeon, respectively.

Upon arriving in Tennessee, Ming adapted fairly quickly, soon becoming attached to her adoptive parents and accustomed to her new surroundings. Ming was a quiet, reserved child, preferring to stay indoors with her parents and stick mostly to herself. This behavior continued into elementary school, with Ming gaining a reputation for being generally adverse to socializing, if kind and helpful, even to those she didn't know. She did well in elementary school, getting A grades in every subject with minimal effort, her adoptive parents supporting her and her academics at every possible opportunity.

One of Ming's favorite activities from an early age was reading books alongside her mother. Her mother often spent at least an hour of each day reading children's books with her adoptive daughter, both in an effort to help her learn to read, but also as a bonding opportunity. Reading soon became her primary activity as she entered elementary school, with Ming beginning to read more books on her own, taking well to certain book series like A Series Of Unfortunate Events and The Chronicles Of Narnia. She enjoyed the chance to take fictional stories at her own pace, being an introspective person who liked to ponder works as she took them in. As she got older, she gravitated to more esoteric, long-form works such as Infinite Jest, The Wheel Of Time, Cryptonomicon, and Finnegan's Wake, finding the books to be a puzzle and/or endurance challenge that she relished participating in.

Shortly after Ming turned eight years old, the Robinsons adopted another child from China, the two year old Chao. The young Ming soon found herself getting jealous of her younger brother, with her parents' formerly undivided attention now split between the two of them. While at first this jealousy turned to resentment, with small-scale but aggressive confrontations occurring. After a few years of living with Chao, the young boy's cheerfulness and positivity began to cause Ming jealousy to subside, only for her to begin to care for him deeply, making it her mission to protect and guide the younger child. The two grew very close as they grew older together, with Chao relying on his older sister as his primary emotional support, and Ming listening to and learning from her brother's different perspective.

When Ming entered middle school, she was soon placed in a program for gifted students due to her high grades in elementary school and performance on standardized tests. While the work and courses were more intensive than the normal classes, Ming still had little difficulty with them, getting As in all of her courses and further proving her academic aptitude. Her social skills, meanwhile, began to develop more, with Ming growing more open to interaction with her fellow students and beginning to amass a close circle of friends.

With her burgeoning love of reading developing further during this time, Ming soon found herself drawn to the idea of writing stories of her own. When she wasn't reading, she would often spend time writing short stories of varying quality with whatever ideas that came to her head. Ming found that coming up with her own stories was an interesting mental challenge, and enjoyed the exercises in creativity involved in the process.

As Ming's writing skills developed and she got older, however, she soon found herself drawn to writing poetry over writing prose. She loved how the greatest poets created so much meaning primarily out of symbolism, and hoped to emulate them with her own writing. Her poetry when she first started was usually fairly meaningless and straightforward, though as her skills and tastes developed, they grew more esoteric and meaningful, usually with symbolic ties to the spirituality she would develop in high school.

Ming continued her academic success when she entered high school, primarily taking advanced placement courses across the board. She continued to excel academically, though she found for the first time that she had to actually put effort into her academics, even if she didn't consider it mentally stimulating. During her time in school, Ming often found her favorite subject to be English, with its focus on the appreciation of literature in all its forms to be inspiring for her own writing, and particularly easy for her due to her love of the written word. She also enjoyed the general ideas behind her advanced placement courses, appreciating how they helped her develop her analytical and problem solving skills in depth across a wide range of subjects. Ming's social skills further developed during this time, with Ming finding more value in interactions with a wide variety of people versus staying mostly to herself, turning her into a social butterfly that became widely liked due to her kindness, patience, and upbeat attitude.

During Ming's freshman year of high school after reading various different screenplays, Ming began to develop an interest in the art of theater, being in her eyes the perfect way to translate the meaningfulness of the written word to visual entertainment. Eventually she decided to join George Hunter's drama program, mostly working on the sidelines as a stagehand and helping her fellow students rehearse rather than actively acting out the parts on stage. She was satisfied merely helping others with their performances, seeing her job on the stage as being just as important to the show as those out front. Even if she didn't directly receive recognition for it, her pleasure at a job well done was more than enough for her to find value in it.

Near the end of Ming's freshman year, she began to experience feelings of self-doubt and anxiety about her future that, while normal for her age, were quite disquieting to her. These new feelings made her consider her life history much more thoroughly than she had before; she had known that she had been adopted since she was young, but for the first time she began to seriously wonder who her birth parents were, and why they felt the need to abandon her as a baby. These thoughts upset Ming, making her feel like she was worthless, and caused her to fall into an emotional downward spiral that would persist and worsen over the course of her sophomore year.

Ming's high grades became tougher to maintain during this time, albeit she managed with significant effort. These new emotions made her feel lost and confused, thinking she had no purpose, and the support of her friends and family were of little comfort to her. It was during this time that Ming stumbled upon various Buddhist scriptures while working on a school project. She began to read them, becoming fascinated with the ideas and lifestyle presented by them. While the teachings didn't resonate with her at first, the more she read of them, the more the ideas began to click, and the more that Ming began to question the way she lived her life and the way she thought about things, and how living differently might ultimately be more rewarding.

Up until this point in Ming's life, she had never seriously considered religious matters, due to both of her parents never engaging in spiritual activities, but the texts made her consider these matters on a deep, personal level. The ideas of living a life devoid of want and worry, and the idea of a cycle of death and rebirth, were convincing to her, and comforting in a way that other things had failed to achieve. With a new mindset, Ming began to put her new beliefs into practice; Ming began meditating on a daily basis to connect more with her sense of spirituality, adopted a vegetarian diet out of respect for animals and a pacifistic worldview out of respect for other humans, and began practicing more asceticism in her life, cutting out things that were solely for pleasure that she realized she didn't truly need.

Due to following the ideas of the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path, Ming's mood improved drastically. While her parents were initially apprehensive, they ultimately became supportive of her new, more spiritual lifestyle. Some of her friends found her change in mindset strange, but with Ming becoming even more considerate and kind than she had already been, most accepted it wholeheartedly.

Some of Ming's previous hobbies changed after her adoption of Buddhism. Reading literature remained her primary leisure activity, but much of the time she dedicated to reading was instead dedicated to meditation. Her writing began to adopt the ideas presented by the teachings of Buddhism, her short stories often ending with Buddhist morals, and her poems often presenting Buddhist ideas through symbolism.

Ming is well known by her peers for being extremely kind, compassionate, understanding, and patient. She is almost impossible to anger, and is very optimistic, leading to her getting along well with nearly everyone she meets. Despite this, she is still fairly introverted and prone to anxiety, so while she likes interacting with her friends and peers, she ultimately requires a large amount of time to herself to truly be able to relax and feel calm. Ming is an idealist, and believes that all people have the capability to be good and to minimize suffering for both themselves and others. Due to her ideals and personality, Ming is very conscious of the suffering that she and all of humanity inflict on each other and on animals, and for this reason is both pacifistic and a vegetarian.

Ming plans on going into college immediately after exiting high school, and plans on becoming an English major and writing literature for a living, even if that career prospect would likely not result in any substantial income.

Advantages: Ming is extremely smart and quick-witted, with well developed problem solving skills that could aid her on the island. Ming is well liked by her peers due to her kind disposition, lending to her having a wide range of allies that she could pick and choose from. Additionally, her spirituality could help her overcome her fear of death, keeping her calm and rational even in the face of adversity.
Disadvantages: Ming is pacifistic and extremely devoted to the ideals of Buddhism, so she is very unlikely to kill or otherwise harm any of her fellow students. She is also physically weak, having spent nearly her entire life avoiding athletic activities, which combined with her small stature could make her very easy to overpower.
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Marceline Carlson
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Richard Smith
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Ming Robinson
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