→ personality
3 defining positive traits: confident, out going, social
3 defining negative traits: guarded, she doesn't soften her opinions and can be very rude at times, she doesn't handle things in a very adult manner--she'll start a fight (sometimes physical) before she'll ever consider sitting down and talking out a problem.
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Josephine has what she likes to call a "big personality". She is who she is and she offers no apologies for that. Who she is is loud, opinionated, a little pig headed, with a good heart buried down beneath. She cares very little what other people think about her. She knows who she is and she's happy (for the most part) with her life choices, so what does it matter if someone else doesn't like her.
It comes as no surprise, but she's not the type to wear her heart on her sleeve. She doesn't even wear it below her shirt. Her philosophy is that her heart was made in the middle of her chest and that's where it belongs. She doesn't open up readily, and when she does it makes her uncomfortable. Only a select few have been privy to the soft underbelly that the spunky woman hides away, and the majority of those people are her immediate family.
Jo approaches life with the attitude that you play hard or go home. She jumps right in to any given situation, often running head long into trouble only to have to fight her way back out. It is not one of her more endearing habits. Still, this isn't all bad. She likes picking the hard roll and seeing it through. She can be patient if it's worth it for her, and her constant, stubborn drive to accomplish new things has worked out for her in the end...for the most part…
→ history
Born on December 4th, Josephine Eloise Bergan was the
best last "surprise" of the Bergan clan. She was the baby of the family, the third girl and fourth child, and while her parents were well into their 40s while she was growing up, her siblings were able to keep up with her nicely, and in turn always kept her busy growing up.
Of her siblings, she's closest to her brother David, (affectionately known as Berg). He was her competition for attention, and yet, when she wasn't out to compete with him she was worshiping the ground he walked on. She wanted to do everything he did, play with all of his toys, and act just like him. That meant that just as Berg was a difficult little boy, Jo was an equally difficult little girl.
Since their father had his dreams fulfilled with his son the future surgeon, Jo found her childhood filled with far less pressure than her other siblings. She was free to try out her interests. She got involved with math and science because Berg did, but it wasn't until home economics in 8th grade that she found her true passion. When she took her first bite of her first loaf of zuchinni bread, she was hooked, much to the surprise of her family. Jo had always been a bit of a tomboy, so this new found love of cooking was a surprise.
While Jo was a smart girl and had an aptitude for learning, she didn't actually like homework. She could ace her tests with just a quick review of her notes the period before, but that only counted for so much if you half-assed your homework. Her parents were not unreasonable people, and so her father offered her a solution to her scholastic apathy and allowed her to enroll in a culinary vocational school for her junior and senior year of high school. She excelled, and upon graduation was accepted at the Culinary Institute of America in their baking and pastry arts program.
She met and fell in love with Edmund Rice her junior year of college while studying abroad in Paris. The pair hit it off, both fiery and passionate people. They were inseparable, and she thought it was true love. As with every whirlwind romance, it had no staying power, and that they made it through the end of school was amazing. She caught him cheating on her, and before anyone else could threaten his life, she kicked his ass herself. He broke her heart, so she broke his nose...and bruised two ribs.
After college she moved around, spending a year in New York City, and another in San Fransisco before she moved to Chicago with her roommate from college. She got a job at "Popover: a Bakery", and had been working there for 3 months before she met the man who would eventually become her fiance.
After the Edmund fiasco, Jo decided to swear off love--not men, just love. She dated a little, but nothing serious. In fact, the first day Connor Morgan came into the bakery, she didn't even notice him. The second day she served him. The quiet brunette man seemed unremarkable to her, and it wasn't until after a month of him coming day in and day out that she noticed after buying a muffin, or cookie, or slice of cake, and chatting with her for a few minutes that he left the shop only to give away the baked good, and head back out to work. She asked him the next day and he admitted that he came everyday and bought something just as an excuse to speak with her. In typical Josephine fashion, she was initially appalled by this. It bordered on stalking--or so she thought. According to her sisters it was romantic. Whatever, she didn't want romance.
As stubborn as Jo was, Connor was equally patient. Everyday for 6 months he showed up at the bakery. He never pressured her, he would just come in, say hi, chat for a moment, buy something and then leave. It wasn't until the day he walked in with a card with a ridiculous kitten dangling from a branch saying "hang in there" that she actually gave him some thought. When she asked what the card was for he said that whenever she was having a bad day her blueberry muffins usually had a few too many blueberries on top: It meant she was rushing and thinking about something else. It was true--her oldest sister Sydney had been having trouble with her husband, and Jo had been worried about her. That was the first time she agreed to let Connor take her out.
If there was such thing as the perfect mate, Connor was it. He was tall, handsome, kind, thoughtful. He didn't just put up with Jo's personality, he loved her for it. They had their fights, it wasn't perfect, but he always seemed to know when to cave and when to hold strong. The one time she tried to break up with him, he refused to actually let her, and showed up at her apartment the next day with her favorite take-out and waited her stomach out to let him in. He became her best friend, her closest confidant, and she loved him very much--which terrified her.
In all of the two years Josephine and Connor had been together, the moment he proposed was the happiest. It was followed by the worst--when the ring was slid onto her finger and he wrapped his arms around her she got this overwhelming sense that everything was going to go wrong. There was no such thing as happily ever after, her sister had proved that. Marriage would be the beginning of the end, and she couldn't stomach watching him grow to hate her. That night, while he slept, she packed her clothes into a suitcase, slipped the ring off and onto the nightstand by the bed, and slipped out into the night. She caught a cab to the airport and caught the first flight out of Chicago, ending up in Miami, FL. She shut herself up in a hotel room and thought about what she could do. brother Berg was working half a world away at a tropical resort, and more than anything she wanted to be with him at that moment. She contacted the hotel, put in her application and waited. Three weeks and two phone interviews later and she was on the first flight out of there. She didn't tell anyone what happened, and she wouldn't, she couldn't.
Being at the Resort was a good distraction for the first few weeks, but as time went on she began to regret her actions more and more. She tried everything to forget what a coward she'd been, but nothing helped. She wanted to go home. She'd spent so much time traveling, and for what? She had nothing substantial to show for it, and she was beginning to regret some of her choices, and Jo did not do regret. With the help of her father, she put a down payment on a small business--her very own bakery. Two years and the business was really taking off, but it didn't matter. Jo still felt restless. When an old friend from her resort days e-mailed her asking if she'd be interested in a position she gladly accepted. She needed to get away again. She packed her bags and headed to Australia this time. She figured even if she couldn't find peace, maybe she can find another mountain to tack onto her list.
Australia didn't provide any peace. In fact, it gave her nothing but more heartache. In Australia, she finally ran into Connor. It was literally the last place on earth she expected to see him, so of course there he was. The talked, and fought, and in the end he left, and things felt really final for the first time. It allowed her some perspective, and she moved for what she hoped would be her final time. This time to London where to opened a shop with a friend she'd met while she was studying in Paris. "Josephine's" has been open for over a year now and it continues to thrive., and for the first time in a long time, Jo feels like she's in the right place at the right time, and she's happy to finally be settled.
