006.5 - Background and History
Occupation
For one so young, Andrea has accumulated a lot of responsibilities and much to keep her busy:
- The proprietor of the Boundary Cafe, a coffee shop cum bistro in Blear Bridge.
- Lejth Maiden on Blear Bridge Lejth. Andrea's mother had been a popular representative on the local council. Following her death, Andrea, although she had never actively sought it, was nominated by popular acclaim as a candidate at the ensuing by-election and was elected unopposed.
- An operative with the Butterfly Club.
Education
Andrea attended local Junior and High Schools in Blear Bridge but her academic record was not a sparkling one and her formal education went no further than that.
Although she is far from being the dullest button in the box, the schoolroom was never really Andrea's natural habitat. Always one for outdoor activities, a doer rather than a thinker, her schooling is replete with slapdash home-works and lessons daydreamed through. Indeed, she missed a lot of schooling entirely in the Midwinter of 776, preferring instead to be in the company of Magdaléna the Wanderer and in the Midwinter of 777 when she was always in the forefront of volunteers to join the workforce helping keep the wheels of industry turning through the bleakest weather of the Cycle(1).
Now one might regard it as remiss of both her parents and the school authorities to allow Andrea to skip so much of her education but it is seen as very poor form indeed to stand in the way of the needs and wishes of either a Wanderer or the Trade Guilds. Bear in mind also that both Magdaléna and many of those Andrea worked with (her father not least of those) provided her with valuable skills and life lessons she would simply never have learned in school. Nevertheless, all that missed time, compounded by her final season in school being overshadowed by the accident and its aftermath meant that Andrea’s academic qualifications are notably more modest than they might have been. Whether she could have managed to get into university (or, indeed, whether she had ever really wanted to), fate has dictated we shall never know. However, that same fate has landed Andrea with responsibilities which have required her to wise up quickly in the adult world, a challenge she has risen to with not inconsiderable success.
Footnotes
Lest, dear reader, you should now be imagining Calmarendi as a world rife with children forced into slave labour, be aware that the scheme is entirely voluntary and only allowed during the season of Midwinter. On top of that, the tasks children may perform and the hours they may work are strictly regulated by the rules of the Trade Guilds.
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