MEET ROXANA
Full Name → Roxana Juliana Santiago
Age → 31
Birthday → October 31st, 1993
Order & Type → solo OC
Gender & Pronouns → cis woman, she/her
Sexuality → bisexual
Occupation → unemployed
THEIR STORY
(tw: drug mention)
Ever since Roxana was young enough to understand, she knew her family was broken. Her father, rarely home, would spend late nights at the office or traveling all over Central America on business trips. Her mother, left with two small children, did what she could to give them the ideal childhood. There were toys, games (video and board), DVDs, sleepovers, etc. Everything that would make any child happy. Except Roxana wanted, more than anything, her father to be around more. More than the random days when he’d try to make up for lost time by cooking Sunday breakfasts, complete with a box of donuts from their neighborhood shop, or spontaneous Disney trips. Yet, when her parents sat her and her sister down one morning and dropped the divorce bomb Roxana couldn’t help but feel hatred brew towards both of her parents. She blamed them for not trying, which she regretted years later, once her mother revealed it was due to her father’s infidelity. That divorce splintered her family, and Roxana headed down a path of teenage angst and self-destruction, uncaring about grades, appearance, and even who she spent most of her time with. Once high school came around Roxana was nearly arrested, but the police officer who popped her for possession had a serious heart-to-heart talk to her, while she waited for her mother to pick her up, about where her life was heading if she didn’t straighten out. Instead of arresting her, he allowed her to return home, and in that moment, Roxana decided it was time to turn her life around.
A few months later, after high school, Roxana moved from Sugar Land, Texas to Philadelphia alone. It was scary at first. The only reason it crossed her radar was because she placed her finger on a random spot on a US map, and it landed there. Leaving her mother and sister was easier than Roxana expected, and her relationship with her father was long severed after he remarried and started a new life with another family. Once there, her savings kept her afloat while she looked for employment. She was a waitress at a greasy spoon for a couple of months, then a dog walker for a year. That job paid exceptionally well, but it didn’t afford her benefits. A telecommunications job wound up providing those very benefits she lacked, but the job itself soured her demeanor to the point she only rotted away on her couch as soon as she got home. Roxana eventually found a receptionist position at a dentist’s office, which renewed her zeal for life. She could make friends and spend her free time exploring the city she moved to years before.
As little as Roxana has to do with her family, one thing she picked up was her mother’s weekly lottery ticket habit. She started with a random ticket here and there, a sporadic scratcher if she happened to be at the gas station. After a few months in Philadelphia, she started to play every Saturday. She never won anything, but the thrill of watching the numbers pop up on the screen was a little highlight of her night. Roxana knew the likelihood of winning was minuscule, but she continued to play. That is, until two years ago, when she nearly collapsed from shock when not one, not two, but all of her numbers flashed on the screen. She's played for close to 12 years! It wasn’t until she went through collecting her winnings that she learned of the difference between Texas and Pennsylvania: that she had to disclose her winnings due to open records laws. Something she wasn’t aware of and not at all comfortable with. Yet, that didn’t deter her from securing those funds. It didn’t take long for word to get out and reach her mom and her father, back in Texas. Calls, voicemails, DMs in all her social media accounts, you name it. People crawled out of the woodwork with many sob stories and pleas for help. Roxana isn’t a heartless woman, but doesn’t want to be guilt-tripped to provide financial aid to people who never talked to her. Or the family with whom she intentionally distanced herself. It reached a point where she sought out legal representation to protect herself from the insanity.
It all grew to be too much for Roxana, and she abandoned her social media accounts, changed her phone number, and moved away from Philadelphia to a small city about an hour away. Upon looking at her, you wouldn’t guess she’s a multi-millionaire as she drives a small 2018 sedan, wears the same clothes she’s owned since forever, and lives in a modest bungalow near the city center. Roxana has never been a showy woman, though she might occasionally splurge if it’s something she wants, such as a vacation to the Maldives, jewelry, or little pamper sessions for her puppy. Ashford Valley afforded her an escape from the chaos her lottery winning threw at her, and even though she’s relatively new there, she feels that if, and when, people find out why she escaped Philadelphia, it won’t turn into a feeding frenzy. Not as long as her family doesn’t find out where she moved.
