Almost everything in Andrea Watson's life has fallen prey to poor planning from the beginning. Her entry into the world, on February 4th 1992, came several after her older brother and was a total surprise to her mother and the man she'd been with on and off since high school. Classifying the relationship between Drea's parents as volatile would be a massive understatement, the pair grew up together, shared tears, laughter, tattoos of one another’s name as well as explosive tempers and addictive personalities. Her parents were never married and finally went their separate ways when Andrea's father, Kevin, entered a rehab program for drug addiction only a year after his daughter's birth.
Childhood was far from an easy or idyllic experience for the Watson children who bounced between living with their mother, father, grandparents, and even family shelters for a few weeks following evictions. Working as a long haul truck driver after cleaning himself up from hard drugs Andrea's father's life began to stabilize by the time she entered school, but her mother continues to struggle with holding down a job even now, and collects partial disability as a result of at work injury in her 30s. Drea was barely thirteen when a Child Protective Services incident removed her from her father's home where she was staying at the time and awarded custody to her then 19 year old brother. The following year she began working part time at a Pizza Hut to help him cover the expenses of their small family, while at the same time pushing herself to achieve better than their parents had with his encouragement.
High school was a confusing but considerably more secure time for Dre, and while she struggled through academics with tutors and late night study sessions to achieve her B+ average, she also excelled with great natural talent on the track. During her senior year Andrea broke several of her high school records for mid-distance running and won a partial athletic/partial merit based scholarship to Colorado Mesa University, thrilling herself and her family with the possibility of becoming a college graduate despite the considerable obstacles she'd been dealt.
The first year of college set itself up like something out of a made for TV movie, 4 girls from all different backgrounds in a dormroom with a bed loft and shirtless photos of male movie stars plastered to the walls. However the academic rigors of university were much more demanding than that of her public high school, and the social allure, including the excitement of her first boyfriend and eventual first love, began to draw Andrea's attention away from her responsibilities. Her freshman year GPA fell below a 3.0 and she was placed on scholarship probation and given a semester to straighten up, however following the break up of her relationship in the fall of her sophomore year Andrea's grades had only declined further by the time her review rolled around and the failure cost her the scholarships that she'd initially worked so hard to achieve. Without financial assistance Dre elected to drop out of school and return to Denver where she could move back in with her brother and more easily find work, hopefully enabling her to go back to school part-time without accruing massive debt in the future.
Currently Andrea works as a full-time front desk clerk at the Hyatt Regency Downtown Denver and rents a small above-garage apartment she found on craigslist. She hopes to go back to school to teach high school art someday and currently also volunteers both at SafeHouse Denver and for her local church, where she is a choir member. Despite her wholesome extracurricular activities Andrea is not well known for being the sweetest, or easiest person to get to know. She surrounds herself with a sarcastic, tough to crack shell and is the first to say exactly what's on her mind, even if it's not easy to hear or a popular opinion, though she tends to play her emotions close to the chest and will shut down when pushed to expose anything she is uncomfortable with.
