About me- Valeriya!!

Hi! My name is Valeriya, and I am currently fourteen years old. I live in Coquitlam, BC, but I was actually born in Ukraine and that’s where my entire family lived, also, I go to Dr Charles Best Secondary school, which I live nearby. I have been in the French immersion program for all of my school career, and my favorite subjects are English, Social Studies or French. I’ve always loved these subjects due to personal interest and quite frankly, math is out of the question for me.

A big part of my life that may or may not surprise others is that I am a competitive swimmer. I love sports, though I’m not the most athletically blessed, I appreciate sports and enjoy every single one I do get to try. I joined swimming INCREDIBLY late, as in last year, many people in the swimming community that I have met are incredibly dedicated people who have swam competitively since ages like five or six, while I had started at thirteen. Despite this, I quickly caught up to my peers with many setbacks, but I am grateful I had been resilient enough to not give up on myself through the trying times. Through swimming I found amazing people, friends, mentors and a dedicated community that supports every win and loss together and I’ll always be grateful for these connections.

I believe I am the type of person that may become strongly attached to many things, and this leads me to finding new passions! Although, I wouldn’t say I have a singular passion for the future or a career, I am passionate about several things that merely surround me. I love writing and I think different medias are incredibly interesting, like journalism, film, novels, art, photography, even music. Moreover, a passion and a value that I’ve held for a long time is education, I really enjoy learning and pursuing greater academics, and like I have mentioned, I love learning subjects like history, science, and English. Also, whether you may consider this a passion, a value or a secret third option, I’m passionate about growth and improvement, my own and for others. I believe it’s incredibly important to allow yourself to grow and change, and attempt improvement too, and I strive to be able to help others improve too, even in the smallest ways.

Over the years of my life and some self discovery, I have realized the many characteristics I have. I’ve been told before that I am stubborn (which may definitely be true), or that I’m patient, and while many labels may fit, I believe one of my strongest attributes may be my resilience. While there definitely are times that I struggle and would much rather prefer to give up, I’ve taught myself and continue to practice getting through challenges and difficult tasks. I hope I can even improve this further to have strong mental fortitude!

Furthermore, if I could solve any problem globally or locally, I would like for it to revolve around mental health, for youth, children, adults, anyone affected. Someone’s mental health is crucial to how a person can not merely survive but fully live their life, and importantly, mental health doesn’t discriminate, rather it can happen to anyone. Everyone’s needs are also incredibly unique, and while some may not have access to mental health resources, others problems may be misunderstood or stigmatized. I empathize with those who struggle, whether you believe it be a small or large problem, through my own struggles with school, sports or my own personal life, I would want to help others who struggle with this.

Personally, I love Batman and Spiderman, but (unfortunately..?) the beloved superheroes are fictional, and the people I view as heroes are much better, much more real and notably, real humans with emotions and lives of their own that happened to intertwine with my own. People all around us can influence and impact us greatly, whether it be in a positive or negative way, and I love becoming inspired or impacted by those around me. My family is often who I think of first, they merely live their lives but their actions become something special and heroic to me. My friends are also people I consider impactful “heroes” of my life with their overwhelming support. Although, I am grateful to have people in my life to look up to, one great goal of mine is to become something of a “hero” myself and to create an impact.

Finally, for the butterfly effect project, I am currently interested, and planning on doing, an action project! I had been incredibly torn between choosing an action or an inquiry project but ultimately, I have decided upon the action as my first project. I started doing some volunteer work to begin this school year with a few clubs within the school and I have been really enjoying the different volunteer projects happening, I had also decided to do an action project because I believe it will be a great way to engage with my community and get to know it better while I do a project to give back or help. I am really looking forward to my project and I hope to get started soon!