My name is Maya Cook, and I am a junior at freestyle Academy and Los Altos High School. Maya means illusion in India, it is an ancient group of Mexico. My mom felt inspired to name me this because it is such a global word. Today I feel connected to its past. I love that it is understood everywhere in the world. I really value this because it is my dream in the future to travel all around the globe. I am a curious person that gets easily distracted by the natural beauty of things. I love exploring new places- by myself or with friends. I value appreciating everything around me and viewing the world in a magical way. I am impulsive, and thrill-seeking, but I also love my alone time to relax and re-set. I read many books about the Enneagram, and all of them came out to say that I’m a peacemaker. I enjoy observing people, being kind to everyone, and always trying to create peace and love. I believe we only have one life, one chance to make an impact, so make it a good one.
Outside of school, I love listening to music, deep diving, and finding new artists and genres. My favorite artist is Kendrick Lamar. I also enjoy dancing. I’m on a competitive Hip-Hop dance team, so we get to travel all around the United States for competitions. I’ve been dancing with the same studio for around five years. They are a small family community-based studio, so my team is like family. Family is an important theme in my life, and I cherish the people I spend the most time with. In my family, I am the middle child of three sisters. My younger sister Xochi is 13 and in her sassy phase of her teenage years, and I share a room with her, so we have lots of love-filled arguments. My older sister Cambria is 17, and is very independent and artistic. She is in freestyle too, but she is a senior. I also have a job at Pizza My Heart that I really enjoy. On top of that, I really enjoy hanging out with my friends or going on walks and catching up about our days. I have had the same best friend for all 16 years of my life, and she’s also my neighbor. She was the first family that mine met when we moved to Mountain View and we’ve been close ever since.
At freestyle this year I’m excited to learn things that I never could have even dreamed of in previous years. I’m excited to learn English in new ways, and exploring new concepts and ideas. I can’t wait to take photos I can cherish forever, learn all of the design concepts, and apply them to real-life art I see walking around.