If necessity is the mother of invention, then it stands to reason that laziness is the mother of re-invention. At least, that was the case when it came to the story of Thomas and Susan Morse. They met in 1982 while Thomas was stationed in Arizona and were married two weeks before he was transferred to Hawaii, where they were firmly settled in time to welcome the birth of their first and only child, Collette Morse, on June 13th 1985. When the time came, two years later, for Thomas to retire from the military and make a family decision on where to make their permanent home, well, they decided that Hawaii would work just fine. After all, they already had a home and a community and a routine. Who wanted to try and corral a toddler while packing and unpacking an entire home after all? Not Susan and not Thomas. Instead he found a job at a local garage and Susan focused on raising their daughter, waiting until the girl started school before rejoining the work force as a receptionist. While occasionally the distance from their respectively families could be a challenge, it only took a week of Susan's mother visiting for them both to remember how nice it could be. Besides, they managed to find lifelong friends in Hawaii that felt more like family to them than their own blood tended to.

It quickly became apparent to Collette's teachers that she was an exceptionally bright girl, picking up concepts and skills that were considered advanced even for children two years her senior. By the time she was in the fifth grade, the school was pushing for the girl to be skipped ahead to another grade but her parents didn't feel it was right. They wanted her to remain surrounded by her social equals rather than risk her feeling like the odd one out, the girl who didn't belong. Nevermind that she already felt like that on occasion. Still, she had her friends and she didn't want to leave them, so Collette was happy to go along with her parents vote. Instead, to keep her engaged and encourage her to still strive for a higher potential, she participated in several after school programs including advanced tutoring, marine life programs, and gymnastics. Activities that she maintains a passion for even two decades later.

Shortly after her 13th birthday, Collette's world was turned upside down when her dad announced that he was leaving the family to be with another woman. Turned out, the man had been having an affair for the better part of a year and now that his mistress was pregnant, they'd decided to get married and raise the child. With the island being small and close knit, the two decided to move to Florida where her family was originally from. At first, Thomas made an effort to keep in contact with Collette through phone calls and visits but these tapered off and after a few years, contact was all but non-existent, a trend that continues to this day. However, it drove the mother and daughter closer together as they supported each other in the wake of Thomas' desertion and the ridicule of lesser friends that followed. While not quite at a level where they were best friends, they did have a rich relationship when they weren't bickering. It was in this time period that Collette adopted both her nickname and her sarcastic nature, both being a way of shielding herself from the world.

Choosing which colleges to apply to and attend was a heart breaking decision for Collette as she didn't want to stray too far from her mother and leave the woman all alone, but in the end she had to do what was the best for her education and future. After weighing the options and the financial aspects, as well as scholarships and earning potentials, she finally settled on UCLA. California wasn't too far after all and the financial aid offers where the best. It was a struggle, being pulled away from everyone and everything she knew. Life on the main land, as she'd always thought of it, was quite different from back home. Just the pace and sprawl of it all was overwhelming for the first month, but with her wit and her humor, not to mention common sense and brains, Collette was quickly able to adapt and by the end of the school year, she felt like a California native. Which was good, seeing as how she made the state her home for the next seven years. She went through a variety of odd jobs, including a stint at waitressing and bartending, before graduating with her masters and searching for a real position in the "real world" as she liked to call in, something more in line with her education rather than just something to pay the bills.

Opportunity knocked and with it came another huge shift in life and culture as Collette packed up and prepared to move across the country. She'd been offered a terrific position at an aquarium in Boston and while it took her away from the warm weather, new friends, and even the school she had hoped to return to for her PhD one day, she just couldn't turn down the chance to work in her dream field. It was a smoother transition than had occurred in previous years, but still contained its bumps, mostly pertaining to local customs and an intense hatred for the cold weather. Collette had never had to deal with seasons before the her first New England winter was a hard slap in the face. It still is, every year, and winter is when she misses her hometown and childhood the most.

Despite these facts, Collette managed to settle down into a pretty good life. She made new friends and joined new activities while pouring her heart and soul into her career, working her way up from a lowly assistant to a project lead in just a few years. It's here that her climb seemed to plateau and it felt like she would get no further without a more advanced degree. After all, it was far easier to get research grants when you have the title of Doctor in front of your name. So she decided to go back to school in pursuit of her PhD while continuing her work at the aquarium. A few months before the beginning of school, she made an impromptu trip to Vegas to blow off some steam and made one of the biggest errors in her life by getting completely wasted and marrying a stranger in front of an Elvis impersonator. Once the hangover wore off, and the self flaggelating began to lessen, they decided to make the best of things and try to make the marriage work. Sadly, they were very different people with very limited time and the entire thing fell apart rather quickly. Best laid plans of mice and men, as the common saying goes.

So with a shrug and a sigh, Collette filed the paperwork for a non-contested divorce and went along her life as if everything was all wrapped up in a neat little bow, never even realizing she never received a conformation from the courts. Instead, she turned her attention toward her passions and her friends, continuing to build her life the way she sees fit. Is it perfect? No. But it's all hers and in the end, that's all that really matters.