Board Thread:Creation Box/@comment-3503487-20160125043823

Gender: Female

Birthday: February 16, 1995

Face claim: Anushka Sharma

Family/Housemates: Mina currently lives in the campus apartments at Lebeaux University with two roommates. Her two roommates are best friends, and Mina often feels like the third-wheel to them. Due to her busy schedule, Mina can rarely be found in her own apartment, but she's on good terms with her roommates. Mina also still is in contact with her father and stepmom, often visiting them in Barfield, but she has not been in contact with her mother since she left them.

Address: University Avenue, Lebeaux

Personality: Mina is a very intelligent young woman. She always excelled in school and was mature for her age throughout her life. She has a great passion for science, and she often attributes her passions and love of learning to her dads' nurturing style. She is driven and is capable of achieving almost anything she puts her mind to. She possesses great loyalty to her family, especially her father, who she knows always has her back.

When meeting people, Mina can be very sociable and likable, but she doesn't let her guard down easily as she tends to distrust people she doesn't know. She is comfortable in group settings, but she enjoys her time alone the most. She can project confidence more than she actually has. People who know her well know that she is introverted and wise, so her closest friends often go to her for advice. She has a maternal nature and she loves kids, one of the things that influenced her career goals.

She is professional and competent among people she works with, and her colleagues all speak highly of her. Mina is usually extremely busy, so she doesn't tend to get invested in relationships with other people besides her family, and her few romantic relationships were short-lived. However, Mina has a knack for getting to know people and being able to detect nuances in their emotions and backstory without them even telling her. She also believes in true love and is somewhat of a romantic; she thinks love is great when the two people get each other and that age doesn't matter.

Mina doesn't identify much with her Indian culture as her father never taught her much about it and her mother left when she was two. All she knew of her culture was that it led to her parents' arranged marriage that didn't work out, and she had no real desire to get to know other aspects of it.

History: Mina was born to parents of an arranged marriage.

Her mother Ishita came from a wealthy family that immigrated from India to Lebeaux, where Ishita grew up. Embracing the values of her new country, Ishita grew up very fortunate and enjoyed her liberal surroundings. She was a very sociable girl in school with a wild and fun-loving personality, and she enjoyed dating, much to the disdain of her traditional family. When she turned twenty, her parents eventually gave her an ultimatum that she must settle into a marriage and start a family with another Indian boy or they would cut her off. Deciding to adhere to her family's wishes, Ishita began a series of arranged dates with various men. Among them, she met Aditya, a man who had just moved to the area to pursue a better education. Realizing from their interactions that Aditya wasn't as traditional as most men she had met but was acceptable to her family, she agreed to marry him. They moved into a small apartment in Barfield, and shortly after, Ishita became pregnant with Mina when she was 22.

While pursuing a degree in mathematics, Aditya realized that he was drawn to being a teacher as he had always loved being a mentor to younger students, so he decided he wanted to become a high school teacher. His parents disowned him for choosing a "disgraceful" career instead of one that would supposedly earn him money and prestige. However, he felt confident that he could make himself happy and provide for his family with a little bit of help from Ishita's family. However, after settling into the wife and parenting role for a little over two years, Ishita had a breakdown, missing her youth and party life, so she decided to leave in pursuit of her own happiness and social life. Although it would be hard on Aditya, he knew the life didn't suit his wife and he loved being a parent himself, so they divorced amicably, leaving Aditya with custody of Mina.

Mina's father was a wonderful parent and loved reading to Mina and teaching her when she was a child. He was busy, juggling teaching training and work as a substitute teacher, but he made time for Mina whenever he could, frequently taking her to the library and to the park. Mina was a quick learner, always smart for her age and never being of much trouble to her father.

After raising Mina himself for a couple years, Aditya met a woman named Sheila in 2000. Sheila was in her forties and had two children from her first marriage, both in their twenties and no longer living with Sheila. They fell in love quickly, deciding to move in together within a few months. Sheila treated Mina like her own daughter, helping take care of Mina as Aditya began working as a high school math teacher at Barfield High School. Mina never really got to know her new step-siblings other than seeing them at the occasional holiday, but she enjoyed having a new mother in her life and the two got along very well. Sheila was eager to try for children with Aditya since she was getting old and wanted to have the opportunity for another child, so she soon became pregnant with a son. Unfortunately, Mina's half-brother Ray was born with Down Syndrome. Aditya and Sheila did not try for more children in the future, and they spent most of their time being Ray's caretakers and trying to give him as much of a normal childhood as possible.

Mina learned to be rather self-sufficient to help take care of Ray and be less of a burden on her family. At school, she was rather shy and made few friends, but she was content and loved learning in school. She hit puberty late in elementary school, growing and developing earlier than most of her peers. This further isolated her from her few friends. She cherished the time she spent with her dad, sometimes playing tennis, sometimes talking about their experiences at school.

Through junior high, Mina hated school. She got attention for her body from guys, some who harassed her, and some who teased her, but no one who seriously liked her. Other girls resented her, jealous of the attention she got and how well she did in school. She was bullied for being an attention seeker, for being a nerd, and for her race. School became almost unbearable to Mina, and she broke down in front of her father. Her dad encouraged her to stand up for herself and go to her teachers if necessary. He reminded her how smart she was and that it would be an absolute shame if she let them take away from the learning she loved so much. However, he stressed the importance of her happiness over academics and continued to do so. With the encouragement of her parents and seeing how life was like for her brother, she continued stronger, knowing she wanted to achieve big things in the future.

In high school, she continued to work hard and also help around the house. Social life was still difficult for Mina, but she was no longer bullied as much. She joined the tennis team and volunteered with the after-school program at Barfield Elementary School as she loved kids and enjoyed tutoring them. She had her group of friends that she would spend time with, but she was not super close with them, and she could not stand the immaturity of most of her peers and was never interested in dating anyone. She also hated how little her teachers cared about teaching. However, she did find one teacher who she loved and inspired her, her junior year biology teacher Mr. Johnson. His teaching continued to encourage her to pursue her dreams--she wanted to become a doctor and finding the cure for diseases. With her work in high school, Mina was accepted to Lebeaux University with a half-tuition scholarship, and she applied to other scholarships that funded most of her college tuition.

College was the first time Mina truly felt a sense of belonging. She loved the college atmosphere where she felt treated like an adult and able to thrive on her own. With her science interests and love of working with kids, she decided she wanted to become an OB/GYN. She worked with a professor on research and volunteered at the hospital. She also finally opened herself to romance, dating a couple of graduate students. She continues to visit her family often and works a job at school to pay for her expenses. She's well on her way towards her career goals while enjoying her life.

Describe your character in a word: Mature

How your character would describe herself in a word: Assertive 