In life, where do you draw the line between past, present, and future? Where does the present become the future and where does the future blend with the past? What happens when the past and the present are two completely different worlds that have nothing in common? How do you bring the past into the future?

So basically, I did a lot of driving today, to and from Salem for the Oregon Right to Life conference, etc., and too much time alone always makes my brain start going about a gajillion miles per hour. On I-5, I drove by the exit that takes you to a friend of mine's house, a friend from Africa. I think he goes to OSU now, but I don't even really know. He and I were never super best friends or anything, but we've known each other since I was in 5th grade and it kinda makes me sad that nobody really knows the Africa part of me or the Switzerland part of me. Or the pre-uprooting-of-life part of me.


So within Melissa Faith Tucker, here are my personas:

1) Melissa. Born in Nazareth, Israel, lived in California until she was 9. Moved schools often. Super outgoing, kinda an annoying kid, if you ask me.

2) Mel. Moved to Switzerland at the age of 9 to learn French, before going to Africa. Became extremely withdrawn and hardly even spoke for at least a year, perhaps more. I actually hated it when the Swiss people started calling me Mel. But then it grew on me. Now, I love nicknames because you only give someone a nickname if they're important to you. I also later came to the realization that if I married Mel Gibson, my name would be Mel Gibson, which is SUPER COOL.

3) Mélissa. Moved to Africa at the age of 10, lived through civil wars and evacuations and near deaths. Lived in 3 different African countries and the only material thing that traveled with her the whole time was her barbies. And her doll, Zoey. I don't think anyone in Eugene has ever met Zoey. She's super cool.

4) Mrs. Richardson. 7th grade, lived in America for a year. Became obsessed with the boybands of 1999. Mr. Richardson's name is Kevin, and he's a Backstreet boy. My best friend Analicia was married to Nick Carter from the Backstreet boys and my other best friend Raylene was married to Nick Lachey from 98 Degrees. Mr. Lachey is now married to Jessica Simpson. My marriage to Kevin Richardson expired in 9th grade, when he married some other girl. I still wear my wedding ring, only it's on my right hand now.

5) Melt. Was born in study hall in 9th grade, when she and Ruben and Travis had the entire library to themselves for an entire hour every morning. Ruben came up with the nickname, from Mel T. The name stuck, and I was Melt for the rest of high school. I'm still Melt with all my Africa friends and my brother.

6) Melly. Freshman and Sophomore year of college, back in America. She was Catholic. The nickname actually came from Father Dave, the preist at the Newman Center. Melly learned a lot of things, really fast. Experienced a lot of culture shock and tried to just completely put Melissa, Mel, Mélissa, and Melt behind her. Especially Melt.

7) Tuck. College Republican, Junior year. The nickname was started by Anthony, the newly inducted honorary member of my Africa crew. Tuck is only recently trying to figure out how to make Melissa Faith Tucker one again by talking about Africa with her friends. Test subject number one is Anthony, hence the abduction. I think it's going pretty well becuase he's still my friend. This might work and I might try it on others. I might try it on YOU if you're not careful. Tuck is also trying to understand American culture and trying to figure out what her culture is.


Besides my parents, the only person who is a part of each me is Sir Joshua Benjamin Wayne Tucker. One of my friends says she's convinced that Josh and I are actually twins. But really, he's the 22-year-old that lives it the garage. My mom kicked him out of the house for being too loud. So he lives in the garage.