Since I was born on August 14th, 1997, I have lived in Jamaica Plain with my twin brother, Peter, my older brother, Michael, my mom, Helen Dajer, and my dad, Pat Skerrett. I have lived in the same neighborhood, Moss Hill, my whole life. My mom grew up in Puerto Rico, and as a result is completely bilingual in English and Spanish, and so wanted my siblings and me to become bilingual as well. My brothers and I therefore all went to the Rafael Hernandez School from Kindergarten until 6th grade. It was a great experience that led to all three of us becoming semi bilingual with no trace of an accent, which is something that I am thankful to my parents for every day. As we grew older, however, the school environment wasn’t as challenging as we needed it to be, and so my twin brother and I transferred to the Curley for 6th grade before we both followed my older brother’s footsteps, got into Boston Latin School and settled down there. Going to BLS was always almost a given in our family, and even though we all got in, it still felt like the biggest deal ever.
While at BLS, although it was a struggle at first to get used to all of the homework and challenging classes, I quickly learned that it was the right place for me. After struggling being in classes with people who weren’t as committed to their education as I was, and after always feeling like I wasn’t being challenged enough, I finally found a school where everyone was extremely smart and, in general, wanted to learn as much as I did.
Outside of school, I love to dance. Ever since my parents noticed me prancing around our house as a toddler, they realized that I was one girl who couldn’t stand still. At the age of six, I was enrolled in my first dance class at Tony Williams Dance Center in Jamaica Plain, and ever since then, I couldn’t stop. I quickly found out that, although I very much disliked tap dance, I absolutely loved ballet. I found my passion. For more than ten years, I’ve been dancing and as the years have gone by, I’ve expanded my repertoire to feature some different types of dance such as hip hop, contemporary, and modern. Since dancing has also brought me some knee and foot problems, I’ve learned to love choreographing as well, and have had the opportunity to choreograph two full length pieces for my dance studio.
Inside of school, I’ve loved declaiming and history classes especially. I love to memorize inspiring excerpts of speeches or monologues, and this has led me to discover that what I love most is communicating messages and stories to other people. I also love history, as I find that the lessons which history teaches us are the most important lessons we can learn, and that history explains so much of how our society works today. I have also found that I am quite good at math, though it has never truly interested me. As a result of my interest in history and public speaking, I have found myself as president of Latin’s Model United Nations Club, which has taught me so much about international law and the way debates work, as my school’s Respect Initiative, which seeks to educate the student body about issues concerning respect, such as bullying, domestic violence, and stereotypes.
I also am very much involved in my church’s youth group, where I help organize classes and lead weekend retreats, which involve preparing and giving talks, as well as leading discussions, something that I have loved doing.
Looking towards the future, I hope to possibly major in linguistics or some sort of social science in college. I am interested in so many different things, and I love learning so much that I look forward to broadening my horizons and discovering what I will want to do as my career. Now all I know for sure is that I want to make a difference.