Roses's Dark Knight

„If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong.” – Murphy’s Law (one version of it)

Murphy’s laws seem to be connected to me and a few select. I am not kidding. Like, the other day I was happily doing homework on my laptop and out of the sudden the power went down. Let me add that it is ancient so the battery is dead. The power came back in a few minutes but it was enough time for me to lose not just my homework but also the project that only had 50 pages. Notice the sarcasm. So, yeah. I feel so murphy-ed.

I guess I should clue you in as to what happened. Not about my lack of good luck, but also my life. It started way back, when I was just a tiny … oh wait not that far back … Darn that sense of humor. I will try and be more normal, even if I’m not sure as to what that means.

For you, I will try anything once. But if I don’t like it you better suffer the consequences. At least, that is what my best friend, Blanca tells me.

My name is Rose Jamgocian and this is my story. Some of it at least, the parts I think are important to remember. The parts that made me who I am today.

Grew up in a small town in Romania named Dumbrăveni-Sibiu. A very beautiful, nice and may I say small town. Well, not your average small, ignorant town, but it had the makings of one. Basically, if you were not related to, or at least know half of the town you were an outsider and treated as a family.

I mean hello, could you at least be a little afraid or aware of a stranger. What if they ended up to be a robber or worse a killer? But no, here you got all the love you wanted without the judgement. Maybe because many that live here came to escape something and they are well educated but now ended up in owning a store or got a trade, like gardener, shoe-maker, jewelry making. Yes, you can live of those. My mother was an accountant, she wasn’t running away from anyone. And I say was because she is no longer with us anymore. She was born in this place and so was I.

I had someone to pester and make my own, my grandmother was the one. She loved me, and made me feel special, even if I didn’t love myself. She was the one that ran away from her family, or at least that is her part of the story. Because they just threw her away. They wanted to trade her off, and so they did. They married her to an Armenian man, a good man. Lucky her, she had a good man and 5 daughters, and here is where Murphy’s laws enter.

One can have a husband or a child that is good but not both. While her husband was good to her, her girls grew up and left her with nothing after her husband died. Almost nothing, my mother stayed and had me. She on the other hand, has a good daughter but a not so good husband. Let me stay on this and not judge me so fast. This is the story I am sticking to. You can ask my Omama, I mean my grandmother that I was a little demon angel. One cannot have both.

Here I am. Growing and finding a place for myself. It was not easy, let me tell you. Just let me explain all the layers. Like an onion, or perhaps more like a rose, just like my name. Because I do not like onions, and I cannot stress that enough. I do not like onions!

So, my life started. Born in a hospital, with doctors who were very skeptical as to if I would survive. I bet you thought I was home-birthed. Didn’t you?

Why is that? Well because even if I was born on the due date, I was very under-weight, 1.5 kg. My mother, Maria was not married to my father at that time. So, she had to take care of herself and me all alone, no family and no one to help her. Except for her mother, my grandmother, who could only offer moral support. A rough start in life. But hey, I survived and now I am okay. As okay as I can get. I mean we might be born normal but life has a way of making us unique.

Like a diamond. The life of a diamond is hard. Even if it is a well-known gem-stone it has an incredible journey that only highlight the natural forces that come together and create it. Most of the time I like to look at others as jewels, like a sapphire or an opal.

It is only under great pressure that the most beautiful diamonds are formed. Just like humans.

„If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.”

One of Murphy’s laws that make me think if anything can be as it is. Maybe yes, but when it comes to people it is mostly true. I find it interesting that we are capable of evolving and growing, but when it comes to truth, we find it black and white. No intermediate and definitely no grey. Gods forbid we meet someone who tells it like it is. Ever got that feeling?

Well, my truth has black, white and all shades of grey. Because things aren’t always what they seem, and so are people. We are complex, we think, we feel and it sometimes brings us to pain. At least thinking should get us out of trouble, not into one.

Enough jokes about one’s destiny. We have plenty to joke about later with my sick sense of funniness. Or maybe it is just the right amount of humor that I have. I will let you decide.

My best friend whom I want you to meet would say that everything happens for a reason. She is like a sister to me and I am her rock. She says that without me she would have gone crazy. Her parents are from Dumbrăveni also but left for Italy where with hard work they now own a restaurant.

I think that they sent her here because of her free spirit, it is hard to contain her. That is one reason why I love her, nothing can bring her down. She finds something good in any bad and something beautiful in anything ugly. That is just the way she is. And I find her wonderful.

One important thing you need to know before moving on is that Blanca and I made a blood-oath to help her with her daemons, as she called them. For a while it was okay. But since she turned 18 things got interesting ...