The story of Victor and Laurie Darling was very run of the mill. They met in college, both of them having attended Cornell University in different programs. If you ask, they'll tell you it was at a Fraternity party. Eyes found each other from across a crowded room and all that. Young and in love was such a cliche. The rest of the staff often criticized their whirlwind relationship, even going so far as to taking bets as to when things would implode. The truth was, they were all likely just jealous. After only one year of marriage, the couple welomed their daughter Miranda. To the onlooker, life was blissful. It always is.

They had gone into business together, opening a winery that boasted an impressive Inn on the lake. That's what Toma grew up knowing. She was always a very outdoorsy child, preferring to have her own adventures rather than spend time inside with television or video games. They had an impressive amount of land that was essentially her playground. She's always been the inquisitive type. Curious by nature. Her parents often times struggled to keep up. Mia, as she was called, never intended to be a handful. It was just something that happened. Eventually, the pressures between being a parent and having a very successful business started to catch up to Victor and Denise. Some would say it was bound to happen.

When Mia turned ten, things started to steadily fall apart. Her dad got a phone call that would change everything for them. He found out that the year before he and Laurie met, he fathered a son. The mother, whose name Mia never can remember because it was hardly important, reached out to him after discovering she was terminally ill. Mia was against taking the boy into their home, knowing that it was only going to further complicate things. She was stubborn, much like Mia is today, and when she wouldn't budge Victor had no choice. He wanted to know his son and to do the right thing, so he left them. Not completely, he still kept contact and visitation with Mia. She often resented her brother for this, even if it wasn't his fault.

High school was a trying time. Her half-brother was in his last year when she was a freshman. Not only was she a little chubby and awkward, but she had that to contend with. In a smaller school, seeing him at least once everyday wasn't unheard of. She was often teased and when he offered help, she was resistant, insisting that she didn't need his help. He tried hard to win her over as a sibling, though she was mostly a baby about the whole thing. She wouldn't actually come around to him until her first year of college. Ironically, they both stayed in Ithaca for just that.

College was where all those years in Drama Club paid off. She enrolled in the performance arts program. Mia was really a natural. She loved college, even if she found herself needing to escape back to her home from time to time. It was only natural. No matter where she goes in life, she always manages to find time to visit the winery and inn, staying in that same bedroom she slept in as a girl.

She took on New York City after graduation. Acting jobs were hard to come by, only scoring a few random things off-Broadway. While she was certainly a good actress, there was always something standing in the way of her getting real parts. It wasn't long before a friend convinced her to move to Boston. In hindsight, it should have taken her much more than that. Her friend was dating a guy there or something to that effect. Either way, she loved Boston from the moment she arrived. There was always something to do, new people to meet, and the surrounding areas were beautiful. Massachusetts completely agreed with her in the way her home did. A perfect fit. It wasn't necessarily in the vain of her degree program, however she managed to secure a job at the WCVB Boston television station. Finally she'd found a place where she could start to make a life for herself without wanting to immediately move elsewhere.

Then life happened. It's how it usually goes, right? Girl meets boy. Boy can't get his act together and they break up. Nothing like making a long story short. Mia knew she wasn't going to end just because her relationship did, though she needed an outlet. Taking some of the money she had saved over the years, she decided to travel the country. More notably, she took some time in Los Angeles, trying her hand at the acting gig from a new avenue. Something about it just didn't feel right. She was faced with tough decisions, and the constant threat to go against her morals. Mia returned to Boston and secured a new job at the station until being laid off in July of 2017. A friend helped her to get a job at a cafe nearby her apartment. She's working on just simply making a living and trying to figure out where she fits into the world.