It began on a Tuesday. Titania Anne Porter was born on the eighth day of December, 1981 at New York Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. The only child of Paolo Porter, a real estate entrepeneur and pharmacutical heir, and Marie Lautrec, a french aristocrat and former dance instructor, Tania was a curious child who loved horses and books. A daddy's girl from the start, it was rare to see Paolo without Tania running alongside him. Her childhood was split between their estate in upstate New York and a smaller home in London. A bright child, Tania learned to speak fluent French and Brazilian Portuguese by the time she was in kindergarten.
Once she began school, however, the small family made their permanent home in New York while Tania attended private school. She flourished in elementary school, loving to learn as much as possible so she could come home and tell her father everything. Paolo did some teaching of his own, reading her as much classic literature and poetry as possible. Of course, he occasionally tossed in a few of his own favorites. He was also the one who gave Tania her first camera.
In July of 1993, when Tania was ten years old, Paolo died from injuries sustained from an accidental shooting on the family's estate. Witnessing her father's death traumatized the young girl, who would carry the incident with her throughout her life. After his death, Marie didn't know what to do with Tania. The girl barely spoke and no amount of therapy seemed to help. She and Paolo had discussed sending Tania to boarding school before his death and Marie decided to go through with it afterwards. Two months after her father's death, Tania was sent to St. Augustine's School in New Hampshire. Tania quickly grew to resent her mother for sending her away, but focused on her studies and continued to do well in school. However, she found making friends to be difficult and was often punished for insubordination.
She remained at St. Augustine's until her sophmore year of high school, when Marie pulled her out of the school after discovering that Tania had been carrying on a sexual relationship with a seminary student seven years her senior. The young man was given a very large sum of money to stay away from Tania and the teenager was quickly shipped off to Winter River Prepartory Academy in Vermont. Transitioning into a new school (a co-ed one no less) in the middle of the school year was beyond difficult and within the first two weeks, Tania found herself in the dean's office regularly. She gained a reputation for being extremely opinionated, arguing with students and faculty alike.
By her senior year, Tania had grown tired of the mean girl routine and attempted to make friends through her work as staff photographer for the yearbook and school newspaper. It didn't go as well as she'd have liked, but Tania managed to make a few friends. She would also eventually date Brody Travis, a fellow senior who had been on the receiving end of Tania's wrath many times over the two years she'd attended WRP. An aspiring filmmaker, Brody appreciated Tania's passion for photography and found that they had many common interests. Like any high school romance, the puppy love was strong and when the time came to graduate, both applied to New York University.
NYU was a whole new world for Tania. She had the freedom to make her own choices with her education and, much to her mother's dismay, enrolled as a photography major. Two semesters later, Tania decided to double major in photography and art history after a particularly interesting survey course. She realized then that her passion really did lie with art and persued it diligently. She graduated summa cum laude in 2004, her romance with Brody Travis having ended nearly a year before.
With a double bachelor's under her belt, Tania chose to move to Middle America after being accepted into the University of Illinois at Chicago's graduate studies program. She worked hard to graduate with her MFA in Art History while simultaneously working on her second in photography. Chicago seemed like a perfect fit, a meld of midwest hospitality and city life. She dated occasionally, though nothing much came out of it. Tania was too focused on school and photography to deal with relationships. Earning her MFA in art history in 2007, she quickly found work at UIC as an adjunct professor. It was a new and exciting turn in her life, one that she embraced fully. Tania liked being in the classroom, both as a student and a professor.
In early 2008, Tania met a law student by the name of Daniel Carrigan. The young man was studying at Northwestern and quickly caught her attention with his wit, intelligence and overabundance of charm. She was attracted to him despite her best attempts not to be, and the two began dating a couple months later. While Daniel wasn't her first relationship by any means, he was definitely the most important one so far. She loved him fiercely and, as the relationship continued, honestly believed that he was the one she'd grow old with. They moved in together in early 2009 after dating for nearly a year. However, after revealing that he'd been unfaithful, Daniel ended the relationship in October 2009. While she hasn't quite recovered, Tania is attempting to move on. Whether that will happen remains to be seen, but she's trying little by little.
Earning her second MFA in 2009, Tania decided that she wanted and needed to focus on her photography above anything else. She resigned from her teaching position at UIC and began working on opening her own art gallery in Chicago. In the meantime, she recently enrolled in Northwestern University's PhD program. What the future holds for her is unclear, but Tania knows how to survive if nothing else. Perhaps she'll find happiness again along the way.
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