Katherine Florian*

[teamsleep†]

Name: Katherine Florian
Gender: Female
Age: 18
Grade: 12
School: Aurora High School
Hobbies and Interests: Stress management, zen, piano, alternative music, post-modernist literature

Appearance: Despite her attempts at maintaining a demure appearance, Katherine is a woman with a natural charm. Of Roman-Francophone descent, Katherine has a slightly aquiline nose, thin jawline, and an intermediately light skin tone. Her shoulder-length hair is naturally curly and is such a dark shade of brown that it appears black in most lighting conditions. Katherine's eyebrows are relatively thin in comparison to her long eyelashes, which hang over her blue-gray eyes that are outlined by visibly dark stress circles.

At 5'5", 129, she is small and thin, but does possess a feminine, hourglass frame. Her teeth are straight, though one of her upper teeth is visibly crooked.

Katherine is a modest dresser, preferring to wear monochromatic cardigans, casual "bomber" jackets, long sleeved tees and pencil skirts or basic jeans. As a rule, baggy clothing that otherwise fails to accent her curves tend to dominate her closet.

Biography: Born to Alison Florian (née Ayala-Robitalle) and Johnathan Gage Florian in Olympia, Washington, Katherine was raised in a manner not dissimilar to her peers. Alison was an once-married widower whose promise to "never marry again" was broken by Johnathan, a day-trader who had moved from New York to the Pacific Northwest after getting his master's degree. Alison, a 40-something tailor, became enamored with the charming man despite being around a decade his senior- they began dating after meeting in a coffee house and married the following year. The year after that, Katherine was born.

As a child, Katherine benefited from being raised by a rather affluent family, moving to a Seattle houseboat on Fairview Avenue East. It was during this childhood where she took up playing the piano, primarily as a result of being shepherded into it by her parents.

One may point to the detached approach to parenting employed by Alison and Johnathan as a possible contribution to Katherine's future behavior, but otherwise, nothing indicated any immediate mental stress. Owing to Alison's late-night work hours and John's frequent trips away from the household to work at the Arizona Stock Exchange, Katherine didn't experience the hands-on style of interaction during her early years- for several years during elementary school, she saw her babysitter more than her father. The loneliness felt as a result during this time may have contributed to her future.

Despite this, her childhood was considerably normal. She got good grades. She was athletic and participated in neighborhood soccer pickup games. She even participated in a horse-riding camp the summer before sixth grade. On top of this, she was a headstrong relatable girl, able to charm her way into the heart of anyone she met.

High school proved to be a significantly more trying time for the Florian child. It was here where her childhood personality resulted in her biting off more than she could chew- for two years, she balanced schoolwork, piano playing, social outings and extracurricular activities at Aurora High school, even though with the babysitter having left for Portland, it meant she was alone at home to deal with these things with little assistance from her parents. The situation came to a head at the end of sophomore year. With the stress of significant testing in school and numerous social and musical events happening outside of it, Katherine experienced her first panic attack.

After her Emergency Room visit and subsequent physician's opinion, John and Alison reached the consensus that surely it had to be the cause of something like excessive caffeine consumption- this theory was quickly proved incorrect when over the course of the summer and junior year, Katherine suffered several more panic attacks- at its worst in the summer, seemingly bi-weekly. Stress brought on by her loaded schedule was identified as the main trigger in her subsequent cases, but actual therapy didn't produce positive results. Enrollment in a Computerized Cognitive Behavioral Therapy program seemed to do nothing to improve her condition, so the family returned to physical counseling instead with similar results.

Katherine attempted to move on with her life, but the panic attacks- and the fear that an attack could strike- caused her to regress with her peers. The disconnect between her and the outside world grew- her friends were put off by her chronic anxiety issues and she rarely took the initiative, becoming in a sense socially crippled- at one point, she rejected a fellow classmate asking her out simply because she was too afraid. The once brash Katherine was now the class "headcase", a shy, quiet young woman doing her best to stay out of the way.

The Florian household was miserable-what could they do? They suggested antidepressants, anything- just to make the breakdowns stop. Katherine's therapist balked; SSRIs could exacerbate her anxiety further and cause withdrawal symptoms if she were to improve and come off the medication, and he was worried that she may become dependant on BZD medication. Eventually, a TCA was prescribed after much debating.

The combination of a successful anti-anxiety drug and Katherine's newfound interest in yoga, Buddhism and zen improved her condition greatly. Believing that the concepts found within would improve her everyday function, she subscribes to the Noble Eightfold path, most notably found in the Dhammapada- Speak or act with a peaceful mind/ And happiness follows.

To begin senior year, Katherine considers herself somewhat "stabilized"- still suffering from anxiety, but not to the crippling point it had been in the past. Still a superb piano player, Katherine subscribes to the musical stylings of shoegazing, "slowcore", post-rock and other alternative, down-tempo genres- however, she has stopped with piano lessons and rarely plays in public. Though still socially reserved, she has developed a taste for literature in the post-modernist and New Sincerity movements, enjoying David Foster Wallace's unconventional style and the sometimes brutally-honest Karyna McGlynn. In her social life, her musical prowess and taste for alternative prose has endeared her to some of the more artistic sects of Aurora High School; Katherine is a member of the book club, one of her few after-school pursuits, and has been tapped to play piano for school productions in the past. When pressed, Katherine is an eloquent girl and generally very well-read and intelligent, able to hold lengthy conversations with anyone that is able to break her out of her shell- it has simply been an issue of getting her to open up. Outside of school, she still doesn't attend many outings on her own accord, but can be usually counted on to arrive at some meet-up or party if invited.

Advantages: Despite her recent strides, Katherine is not a socially active young woman. As a result, while her circle of friends is not immensely large, few people possess a negative opinion of her, solely for the fact she's barely ever interacted with anyone and the few that do consider her in a favorable light. Moreover, her modest personality contributes to her lack of ever really sharing any controversial views that may anger anyone.
Disadvantages: Katherine still has elements of a detached, almost-frightened personality, resulting in a shy and off-putting personality towards fellow students despite her attempts to come off as friendly. As an anxious, somewhat depressed and slightly high-strung teenaged girl, she does not respond favorably to adversity. Wishing to avoid bringing about another panic attack, Katherine often avoids the brunt of stressful work if given the chance.