Welcome to Gaia! ::

Name: Joseph Enoch Lamoreaux
Age: 18
Ethnicity: Very Caucasian
Desired (?) Species Result: Equus Caballus, specifically Mustang



PHYSICAL APPEARANCE

Joseph is, overall, quite average in all physical respects – either this or just slightly above the average. He stands at a modest 5’8” while weighing in around 140, making him a bit skinny; however, four years of running in high school and a light weight training regimen to which he subjected himself during the second semester of college have given him a modest measure of muscle that he doesn’t often demonstrate, though it is there.

His hair is a very dark brown; so dark, in fact, that sometimes it takes a good deal of bright sunlight to prove it isn’t black. It is also about an inch longer than it should be, but he likes it that way: his singular, little touch of rebellion.

The irises of his eyes are just a shade lighter than his hair, and he is apt to piercingly stare into space when in deep thought.

Joseph’s wardrobe is strangely monochrome; mostly dark blue and khaki, the inexorable pattern is interrupted only by the occasional t-shirt or school-themed sweatshirt, brown for Brown University and a combination of blue and orange for his high school.



ITEMS

Joseph’s Personal Portable Library of Books He Likes a Lot:
Holy Bible
The Book of Mormon
Shakespeare’s Macbeth
Dante’s Divine Comedy
Cervantes’ Don Quixote
Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings
Milton’s Paradise Lost

Other Items:
Laptop computer (with accessories and such)
Tons of music!
Many programs!
Ear buds!
Digital Camera (for sunsets)
Cellular phone
Backpack
Writing Utensils Galore
Beloved .5mm Mechanical Pencil
Sketchbook/Journal
Alarm Clock
Journal
A Car!: 1992 Dark Blue Nissan Stanza

Clothes:
One pair of blue jeans
Four pair of khaki pants
7 pair of assorted khaki and jean shorts
8 t-shirts of varying shades of neutral and blue shades (one bright yellow one)
A generic Brown University sweatshirt with hood
A high school cross country sweatshirt: blue with orange highlights
Running shoes
Sandals
Flip-flops
Dress clothes for church
Suit
White button-up shirt
And
An Australian-styled brimmed hat.
(Yes, he packs very thoroughly)



MENTAL/EMOTIONAL

PERSONALITY

Joseph is a relatively introverted person; while he s able to function in society adequately with minimal awkwardness, it is no often that someone not in his close inner circle of friends gets to know him very well. Often, especially recently, he has gotten caught up into his own thoughts and can be found intensely staring into thin air as he contemplates deep subjects. It used to be that he was very comfortable with making his mind known; he would freely volunteer his political views in others’ company – sometimes to the point of blatant offense if he felt passionately about the issue – but as his beliefs have been called into question, he no longer dares to venture comments he cannot defend, and now nearly limits interaction to that dictated by courtesy. In a similar vein, he reserves personal connections for only those to whom he closest, and has never been able to date anyone on the pretense that he cannot develop too many close relationships.

As his certainty wanes, his intense ambitions have also; for much of hi youth, he wished to be a bastion of moral virtue in the world by entering the political scene and legislating it. As with his behavior in public, this has disappeared; without a clear and distinct view of the world, he has found it difficult to maintain many of his former convictions.

He still relishes anything with a simple, elegant beauty about it, however, partially in longing for a life that would be somewhat simpler itself but has nevertheless irrecoverably fled.


STRENGTHS and WEAKNESSES

He is very thoughtful when an issue is presented to him and works it out until he is sufficiently satisfied with the result, whether it be an interpersonal problem, a theological dilemma, or even just returning the $1 his seventh grade history teacher loaned him once. However, this can also be a weakness, as when his indecision on an issue impairs and hobbles him so that he can go no further. Every once in a while, a glimmer of his former surety shines through the pensive skepticism in which he now resides, but to him it can seem hollow and almost farcical. If he has a question, he wants to KNOW the answer for himself and not merely rely on others’ opinions.

He is talented in many areas – his extracurricular passion has always been performing music, whether in choir or band, though he has just discovered how much he likes to draw – but suffers from a brand of self-depreciative modesty that will not allow him to claim any success as his own.


INTERESTS and HOBBIES

He absolutely loves music and experiences his most transcendental moments while singing (he is a baritone) or playing (as he does the French horn). His love of art also spills into the visual realm, though he has as of yet had little practice therein. He still fosters a fleeting interest in politics – which has diminished because of the demands of college. He is very devout in his religious beliefs or at least thinks he is; he is obsessed with minutiae, an obsession that can often leave him hanging on bits of perceivedly thorny doctrine for weeks.


LIKES and DISLIKES

Joseph has generally a very easygoing personality: not much annoys him, and he gets very excited about relatively few topics. However, he has a great affinity for his family relationships – he is very close to everyone in his family and enjoys their company and mutual support. He loves music, friendship, good literature, knowing what is right, catharsis, beauty, quiet moments to ponder, sunsets, simplicity, and the Socratic Method. His favorite animal is the horse, which he believes embodies the aesthetic boldness that a life out to have.

His dislikes have been in flux for a very long time as his conception of right and wrong has been disputed by his experience at his freshman year in college; generally, what he hates now is people who are deliberately contentious or too certain of themselves and arrogant about their surety.



HISTORY

Joseph Enoch Lamoreaux was born to David and Elizabeth Lamoreaux in Provo, Utah on June 22, 1988, in the final months of his parents’ college experience at Brigham Young University. Shortly thereafter, his father began a career as a science teacher in a local high school, a position which, though it accorded a sense of enjoyment and success, only allowed the family moderate means with which to get by.

His childhood was overall quite happy, in spite of living in a somewhat cramped apartment for the better portion of it and seeming to never have enough money to get more than the basics with a few Christmas and birthday gifts on the side. He always looked up to his older brother, Jacob, adopting many of his likes and dislikes and trying to follow in his ambitious footprints all throughout his younger life.

Joseph was somewhat quiet as a child, an effect partially caused by the overshadowing presence of his older brother, but he was always able to make good friends at school and become involved in good activities. He followed his brother’s example and his parents’ urging in many of these pursuits, taking piano lessons for several years, joining the school band (in which he played the French horn), and singing in the choir.

One thing that Joseph enjoyed greatly was the Star Trek series; to him, though he could not have explained its allure at the time, it presented an idealized world where the stars could be traversed in clean, symmetrical starships and problems, though difficult, could be dealt with in a manner beneficial to all.

The thing that had the greatest effect on his life, however, was his faith: on all sides, his family had been members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since the 1850’s. Stories of crossing the plains and the hardships his ancestors endured always solidified within him a great conviction of purpose. He loved his religion and its doctrines; when Star Trek finally fell out of his range of vision at age thirteen, amateur theology easily replaced it. Where once had been his Star Trek readings now stood the scriptures, which he read in conjunction with the seminary classes he took in high school. Indeed, he often went far beyond the assignments; when his class was reading only excerpts of the Old Testament, Joseph read the whole thing; when they studied the New Testament, he finished early and read the Book of Mormon for the third time. He delved deep into doctrine, trying to find out everything he could possibly know.

High school was a very busy time for Joseph; he was involved in about every activity one can possibly imagine: band, jazz band, marching band, district honors band, choir, state choir, scholastic bowl, literary magazine, Boy Scouts, and many, many more. He was always incredibly busy, running from one thing to another, while taking honors and AP classes galore, all in an effort to get into a good college, especially after his brother left for an Ivy League school.

In the end, the sweat paid off: he was accepted into several good schools, and decided to attend Brown University, which, though second on his list of preferences, gave a great deal of financial aid.

However, when he got to college he found an incredibly different atmosphere than the sheltered, homogenous bubble of Provo in which he had grown up. People had many varying conceptions of morality that he had never before seen – it was this, above all, that disrupted him greatly. These people, he realized, were not bad or evil as they might sometimes have been made out to be – they were just people. This conflict, along with inadvertent exposure to blatantly anti-Mormon materials, threatened to undermine his faith. For him, his freshman year was extremely difficult emotionally, especially since his mother, she to whom he had always gone with his emotional issues, was several thousand miles away. Compounding the problem was the fact that he was set to leave on a two-year mission for his church the following summer, a sacrifice he felt he probably shouldn’t make if he didn’t really believe what he would be preaching.

But, as always, he was able to sublimate these feelings in his interactions with those around him, and in general seemed to be a happy, actualized person: he got involved in several of the activities on campus that he had enjoyed in high school and applied himself in his classes.

Problems rarely come without company as well: in high school, Joseph was very self-aware of how people saw him; for this reason and because of an overwhelming fear of stepping into uncharted, dangerous waters, he never felt comfortable dating, and thus never did. In college he was not able to overcome this engrained habit, and on one of the last days of spring semester, a girl whom he had met through several of his classes (and for whom he, at one point, felt possible attraction) approached him and confessed a crush that she had had on him since the middle of the first semester. Her confession was long and thorough – how she had hung on his every word, idolized him, drawn pictures in adoration (including one, based on a late night conversation, in which she depicted them as their favorite animals – a unicorn and a horse).This left Joseph shell-shocked, stunned into reflection on how his life might have been if other choices, especially in relation to relationships, had been made. Sure, he had written a few papers in her company and had a few discussions about random things until the wee hours of the morning, but nothing had ever come of it.

In the darkness of the shadows of these failures, Joseph decided he needed some light; when his family came to pick him up, he said he needed some time to himself to evaluate his life, with particular emphasis on his upcoming mission. His parents, though concerned, granted him his leave and let him use their car to go where he wanted, trusting his judgment.



FAMILY

Father – David Lamoreaux
Mother – Elizabeth
Older Brother Jacob
[Joseph]
Younger Sister Kristen
Younger Sister Eva



ARRIVAL

Resolving to take anywhere from a few days to several weeks off to contemplate his life and read his scriptures, hoping for a revelatory experience or some confirmation from God that all was not in vain – as well as maybe paying an apologetic visit to the girl he had unwittingly rebuffed, who lived on the Carolina coast – Joseph decided to spend some time in the Outer Banks, where there were ample facilities but still access to nature, where he could go alone to study, ponder, and pray. ‘Cape Fear,’ he thought, ‘is so ironic: I’m going there to face just that: my fears."