Roots

What’s their full name? Why was that chosen? Does it mean anything? Kaia Lei Mahoe. Her name was chosen to reflect her heritage, her father is of Hawaiian descent and Kaia means from the sea in Hawaiian. Her mother is of Chinese descent and Lei means budding flower in Chinese.  Do they have any titles? How did they get them? N/A Did they have a good childhood? What are fond memories they have of it? What’s a bad memory? She had a very picturesque childhood. Two loving parents who showered her with love and were extremely attentive to her needs. They pushed her to pursue whatever she desired even if it was unconventional. She has two foundest memories. One is learning to surf with her parents, they’d leave their house very early every weekend morning (when it was nice) and go to the beach to surf. Her second fondest memory is after moving to Toronto and her mom taking her to the botanical gardens and explaining that there is beauty in everything around. A sad memory, not neccesarily a bad memory, is when she learned her family would be moving away from Hawaii to Toronto.  What is their relationship with their parents? What’s a good and bad memory with them? Did they know both parents? She is extremely close with both of her parents, in fact she is what some considered to be too close. They have a quirky relationship where they have treated her like an adult very early on in her life so she’s views them as peers and friends more so than caregivers.  Do they have any siblings? What’s their names? What is their relationship with them? Has their relationship changed since they were kids to adults? I’d love for her to have a younger brother, someone she could help nuture and teach her love of the earth too. But I don’t know what the you (the muns) have planned for her. What were they like at school? Did they enjoy it? Did they finish? What level of higher education did they reach? What subjects did they enjoy? Which did they hate? She was never a stand out student but she wasn’t a bad student. She was always revered for her kindness to her peers and her dedication to do the right thing. She has graduated college with an Evironmental Sciences degree. In high school though, she excelled in sciences and english (specifically composition) but struggled in history and maths.  Did they have lots of friends as a child? Did they keep any of their childhood friends into adulthood? She had a lot friends when she was younger but since the move to Toronto she grew to be a bit more antisocial and burying herself in the world around her.  Did they have pets as a child? Do they have pets as an adult? Do they like animals? She loved all of earth’s creatures from a very early age and as a young child she would bring home the strays she found and try to take care of them. She did have a family dog, Maui, whom she adored with all of her being. He was her first real hiking partner in Toronto. Now she has another dog named Bo, she also takes him hiking.  Do animals like them? Do they get on well with animals? Animals seem to gravitate towards her but it’s most likely because she is not afraid of them and knows how to treat them. Honestly, she loves animals more than most people.  Do they have any special diet requirements? Are they a vegetarian? Vegan? Have any allergies? They are vegetarian except seafood. She likes Sushi way too much.  What is their favourite food? Sushi. What is their least favourite food? Hamburgers.  Do they have any specific memories of food/a restaurant/meal? When she was little her grandmother would make traditional chinese dumplings and she would attempt to help by folding the dumpling paper. However, she was not the best souchef and she would get upset that she couldn’t really help her grandma, but her grandma would always laugh and reassure her that her dumplings would taste just as good. Now, whenever she eats dumplings she always smiles, thinking of her grandma.    Are they good at cooking? Do they enjoy it? What do others think of their cooking? She is particularly good at cooking and she does enjoy cooking, it helps her keep in touch with her family and her heritage. She doesn’t like cooking for other people though, she is nervous that she won’t be a good enough cook and she’d prefer to keep it as her fun little hobby.  Do they like to take photos? What do they like to take photos of? Selfies? What do they do with their photos? She loves photography, she brings her camera with her whenever she goes hiking and sometimes at work. She normally takes landscape photos. Do they have a temper? Are they patient? What are they like when they do lose their temper? She does not have a temper and is normally very patient, however if someone does something awful enough to make her mad she is very mad. It takes a while for her to get mad but once she is mad she is a completely different person.  What is their biggest fear? What in general scares them? How do they act when they’re scared? Her biggest mortal fear is drowning. She is an avid swimmer and knows how to surf, but she understands the danger the ocean or water in general poses. She never wants to experience the feeling of gasping for air. She also does not particualrly enjoy the dark or small spaces.  Do they exercise? Regularly? Or only when forced? What do they act like pre-work out and post-work out? She does work out on the regular. She is a yoga student, a hiker and a swimmer. She always stretches and has some fruit before working out, and post workout she showers and relaxes her muscles either by napping or just lounging around.  Do they drink? What are they like drunk? What are they like hungover? How do they act when other people are drunk or hungover? Kind or teasing? She does not drink often, but if she is in a situation where it is acceptable to drink she will drink one or two drinks. She has only been truly drunk three times in her life and from what her friends had told her she was very giggly and flirty, in fact she once made out with a stranger.  What do they dress like? What sorta shops do they buy clothes from? Do they wear the fashion that they like? What do they wear to sleep? Do they wear makeup? What’s their hair like? When not at work her style is very relaxed and athletic. Her wardrobe consists of mainly yoga pants, graphic tees and sweaters. She can exude a hippyesque vibe from her clothing but she wears them mainly for comfort reasons not to make a fashion statement. Kaia dresses for comfort and it is rare to find her all dressed up. Make up is minimal and her hair is usually up in a messy bun. When she sleeps not much changes, she’s still in a teeshirt her hair is still in a messy bun, the only difference is she never sleeps in pants.   What is their body type? How tall are they? Do they like their body? Her body type is slender. She is a very lean individual and one can asliy identify that she is active. She is medium height around 5′7″, with little curves to her body. She has grown to love her body as she matures but as a teenager she was not extremely comfortable in her own skin.  What’s their guilty pleasure? What is their totally unguilty pleasure? She watches reality tv shows like Keeping Up With The Kardashians. Her unguilty pleasure is hiking. What do they admire in others? What talents do they wish they had? She admires how some people are social butterflys, she wants to make meaningful connections but she has a hard time expressing how she’s feeling or what she’s thinking.   Do they like letters? Or prefer emails/messaging? She likes texting because sometimes being up close and personal scares her so she likes that texting can be done from anywhere.  Do they like energy drinks? Coffee? Sugary food? Or can they naturally stay awake and alert? She loves tea. All things tea.  What’s their sexuality? What do they find attractive? Physically and mentally? What do they like/need in a relationship? She is bisexual. However, she sees herself more with a man then she does with a woman, this confuses her sometimes because she then questions if she’d really bisexual. She loves people based on their minds not how they look, she is a firm believer that actions speak louder than words and judges people based on how they treat others. She values humor and honesty and dedication to a skill or task. She’s looking for that life partner, someone who will go on journeys with her and can be her rock to lean on when she needs it.  What are their goals? What would they sacrifice anything for? What is their secret ambition? She eventually wants to work for EPA (or canada’s equivalent, i’m american) and help bring awareness to the situation the earth is in. The one thing she would sacrifice anything for is her family, she is deeply rooted in her family and she would give up or give anything for them. Her secret ambition, she’d one day love to be a college professor. She wants to inspire young adults to care about the earth and protect it like her professors did for her.  Are they religious? What do they think of religion? What do they think of religious people? What do they think of non religious people? She is spiritual. She believes in the concept of a soul and an afterlife and a higher power but she does not believe in instituionalized religion. Kaia finds religion in the world around her, like Pochohantas she believes that every tree, every rock, river and creature has a spirit/soul. She does not have a problem with religous people so long as they don’t try and convert her, she does not like overly religious people who use religion as a foundation for hateful biases.  What is their favourite season? Type of weather? Are they good in the cold or the heat? What weather do they complain in the most? She loves all seasons because she finds that every season has something to offer, but summer and spring are her favorites because she loves seeing the earth so vibrant.  Do they make a good first impression? Does their first impression reflect them accurately? How do they introduce themselves? She is very quiet at first and tends to stay in the background of most social situations. I think that most people will find her mysterious in a sense because she is so quiet. However, if someone brings up something that she is passionate about she is an entirely different person. She becomes loud and exuberant, the passion she has for the topic becomes clear.   Do they enjoy any parties? If so what kind? Do they organise the party or just turn up? How do they act? What if they didn’t want to go but were dragged along by a friend? She does enjoy having a good time but parties are normally not her scene. She’ll go if she’s “forced” to but most times she ends up sitting outside ranting to the soned kids about the earth and how beautiful it is.   What is their most valued object? Are they sentimental? Is there something they have to take everywhere with them? She has an ecyclopedia of local fauna and flora that her mother gave to her when she first became a park ranger. She carries it with her at all times.  If they could only take one bag of stuff somewhere with them: what would they pack? What do they consider their essentials? Her iphone, hiking boots, camera, journal, encyclopedia, photos of her family, headphones sweaters & yoga pants.

Oregon Coast January 2017