Please give a short bio of yourself for our readers.

I�m 20 years old, female and Australian. Until last year I lived with my parents and my three younger brothers on our farm in Northern Victoria. That was until I moved into the house I bought with my fianc� in December last year. I left school when I was 16 and have been since working full time at a financial planning practice. I have also been studying for an undergraduate degree in financial planning in my spare time. My workload is the equivalent to a university student, so I�ll complete my degree in December in much the same time as a full time student would. I play tennis and too many computer games.

Why did you choose this username?

Back in high school I was friends with a boy that had quite a crush on me. My girl friends would tease him at band practice by singing "Ben the Fen loves Erica Bjerica" (they don�t do rhyming so well!!). Bjerica was the best the girls could come up with, but somehow it stuck as a nickname.

Why do you keep a diary on-line?

I�ve kept a diary on and off since I was in grade six when I got a lovely little journal for Christmas. I found a diary to be a great way of sorting through my thoughts and thinking through my situations. I also loved to be able to read back on my old entries and remember how I was feeling in a particular situation and think how trivial it was in the whole scheme of things even though at the time it seemed the most important thing in the world.

I started keeping an on-line diary because I wanted people to know me and see what life is like for me. I keep a diary for me, but I keep it on-line for other people. It�s also helping me in learning to express my feelings better, but more on that later!

How important do you think a layout is for a web-based diary? Would you also comment on yours?

I think that layout is important for a diary because it can be used to express the individuality of the diarist. I find it very hard to not overlook a template diary; mainly because I�m looking at a computer screen all day and I want to look at something nice that doesn�t hurt my eyes (like that red template!). At the same time a good layout doesn�t make the diary good, there has to be some quality writing as well.

I change my layout all the time, I can�t help it. I�m usually just testing out the html tricks I learn everyday and because I don�t have another website to use it all on my diary gets a makeover quite regularly. I�m extremely happy with my current design though and think I will stick with it for a while.

What do you suppose makes you react so severely to blood and injuries?

I really wish I knew because maybe then I could do something about it. It�s just horrible having to spend half an hour lying on a hospital floor and then spending the rest of the day feeling unwell when the doctor just wants to take a little blood.

You suffer from stress like many, many others. What is your favourite way to unwind?

I like to watch bad television and play computer games. I like to play tennis and write in my diary. Lately I�ve gotten into cooking even though I�m not really that good at it. I like to cuddle with my fianc� because he makes everything OK.

You said the most interesting thing in the email I received when you were accepted for this interview: "Even though it is my diary I sometimes feel it doesn't truly reflect me. In the beginning I was reluctant to write too much, and I've always had a problem expressing my feeling - that comes from living in a house full of boys your whole life!" Is your reluctance to express your feelings in writing a result of the public medium? Or do you find expressing yourself difficult regardless of the situation? And lastly - can you explain what "having lived in a house full of boys" has to do with this?

There are two reasons why I have trouble expressing my feelings well. The trouble usually only involves "sad" feelings. I can deal with "happy" feelings fine enough. The "house full of boys" has affected my ability to express my feelings because the boys in my family, like a lot of boys, don�t express how they are feeling very well because they see it as some kind of weakness to talk about feeling sad or angry or failing. They tend to just "be" the feeling but won�t discuss it. Growing up in that type of environment has made it hard for me to express how I feel, much to the frustration of people like my fianc�.

The second reason has to do with my pride I think. I am obsessed with being this perfectly composed, in control, successful type person on the outside to others when often on the inside I am completely the opposite of that person I�m trying to project. I don�t want to admit to others that I am not perfectly happy. I think this has to do with the number of people who believe I�ve made mistakes by leaving school early and getting engaged at such a young age. Even though I am 100% happy with my life and my decisions, I don�t want to admit (especially to the doubters) that my life isn�t a blast every single minute.

So I�ve got some issues and I�m still working them out, but having an on-line diary has been an immense help for me.

If you could be any character in a computer game, who would you be and why?

This is my favourite question! I�ve been thinking about it all weekend and I think I would be Vela from Jet Force Gemini. Jet Force Gemini is probably my favourite game on the Nintendo and I�d love to have blue hair and an outfit like Vela (she�s super cute!). Shooting ants and the cartoon like existence is quite appealing!!

Interviewed by GingerBug

most recently:

11:17 a.m.
2001-10-17
bjerica

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