Our community hasn’t just provided Nora with a new physical home; it has also given her many opportunities to complement her imagination. The town’s bustling city center, with its unique shops, serves as a mental backdrop, lending color and texture to worlds she crafts on paper. As Nora settles into her new life in Ottawa, she’s not only absorbing the world around her, she’s also recreating it through her unique lens as a promising storyteller. A member of a writing club at her previous school, Nora has a natural penchant for spinning yarns. One of her stories, a whimsical tale of a dog and a human swapping places, reveals an imagination that thrives on curiosity and transformation, themes not far removed from her own life experiences.

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Nora’s imagination isn’t confined to pen and paper; it soars beyond, touching the hypothetical scenarios of superpowers and time travel. When asked how she’d use a magic wand, Nora hesitates briefly before declaring her wish for superpowers. “I think I’d try to give myself superpowers or something. Because I don’t know, I just thought that’d be fun,” she says, echoing the sentiment of every child (and adult) who has daydreamed of taking flight or reading minds. Nora also confesses her curiosity about time travel, specifically her desire to visit her parents when they were younger. This imaginative leap, while fantastical, also underlines Nora’s real-world curiosity and emotional depth.

 

While we may find it fascinating in bursts of social media capture, we sometimes underestimate children’s emotional depth and complexity. Nora serves as a prime example of why we shouldn’t. From her storytelling abilities that tackle themes of transformation and identity to her daydreams of superpowers and time-traveling, Nora is a wellspring of emotional intelligence and creative thinking. This is no mere accident. A child’s environment plays a significant role in shaping these characteristics. Nora’s mother, a therapist, is likely a cornerstone of her emotional development.

 

She reveals more about this to us in conversation: “My mom would always tell me that I get worried about stuff so often, except half the time it wouldn’t even happen at all.”

 

“Your mom’s right,” we tell her. We understand the uselessness of worry all too well and can relate.

 

Stone-faced, she replies, “Yeah, she’s a therapist.”

 

Oh! Well, what else can we say to that? When you’re right, you’re right, and we trust that when you’re a therapist, acquired wisdom and active listening may be interleaved wellsprings of success. Traits we see in Nora, and as we leave our conversation at the conference table and head toward the lunchroom to photograph her for this story, we see the new kid, slide into the scene, surrounded by new friends with an ease that confirms that we saw what we saw. Welcome to Ottawa, Nora. We’re glad you’re here!