Hi! My name is Laura Mora, I’m a senior at Charles Best living in Port Moody, B.C. I am fully of Colombian descent and Spanish is the main language spoken in my home. This means I am trilingual, speaking English, Spanish, and French as I am in French immersion at my school. I enjoy art, music and physical activity and like to think of myself as a very resourceful person.
In my Hispanic culture, it is the norm to be collectivist cultures and I find that this leads our communities to create very loving and helpful people. I have a family friend group here in B.C. of Spanish speakers from all over central and south America, and we are a group of people that greatly value family and compassion. We are collectivists which means a big focus of our lives is on our families, our friends and how we can help our community. Each holiday, each special occasion we spend with our families celebrating. Something about me is that I love dancing salsa, cumbia, and every type of dance that comes from my cultures and I am quite good at it. We even sometimes celebrate when we don’t have to solely to enjoy each other’s companies and presence (and so I can dance).
I can see this through my personality, as my passion is helping people. It may come as a surprise to some, as I also do rhythmic gymnastics, a technical and artistic sport at National level, and have been doing it since I was three. I’ve always loved rhythmic gymnastics, found it such a beautiful sport from its artistry to the technique needed. I’ve always loved the feeling of constantly pushing myself for improvement as well as the artistic connection of using my body and my apparatus to express myself.
As much as I am a very driven and determined person, a trait which is shown through my gymnastics, I’d say my strongest trait is my empathy. I have a very good skill of putting myself in other people’s shoes and I do it quite often. I get joy out of helping people as I feel like their happiness and gratitude can be contagious and fulfilling.