What's in a Name?

Amelia Jo Beatrice Vasquez-Rivera

Amelia Jo Beatrice "Mia" Vasquez-Rivera; Cuban (mother); Puerto Rican (father); Mia Vasquez-Rivera is a withdrawn, introverted girl who has beautiful dreams yet simple desires, experiencing life primarily through her feelings and vast imagination. She is a compassionate, sensitive soul who tends to be a bit naïve about the world around her, causing her to behave as somewhat of a wallflower during her interactions with her peers. She can be misinterpreted as socially inept at times due to her inexperience with social situations, although she has a very kind heart. She does not appear to have the highest opinion of herself and lacks confidence in some social settings, which can lead her to seem rather meek and mild before the presence of others. Mia's shyness is attributed in part to her frequent moves throughout the country during her childhood and early adolescence with her military father, MSG Lester Vasquez, a man who enlisted and served in the Army for over 20 years. She was retiring and tended to be susceptible to big changes as a child, clinging only to what she knew, yet could be quite affable and affectionate whenever she socialized in smaller doses. She has previously struggled to build meaningful ties with individuals in turn and has never had time to truly develop friends, whom she claims have always left her after she moved. This leads her to hide most of her depth beneath the surface, as she secretly longs for meaningful connections with her peer group and to find new ways to befriend them. A free-spirited seeker, Mia is benign and often felt lost and confused when deciding which direction to take in life and considered herself an almost painfully average person in nearly every regard, not being quite sure about which pathway to take to meet her goals.

Through years of isolation and loneliness after being unable to relate to other people, she revered the stars and considered them her constant companions no matter where she went yet found limited fulfillment in her daily life as her classmates teased and classified her as the "dark, quiet weirdo who was always looking up at the sky". Despite her outwardly private and reserved nature, she nonetheless continues to be very caring toward those around her in her own way. She is deeply selfless and seen as a good listener and confidant with her ability to put people at ease through her empathy and reassurance. Mia was always a curious young girl who had a love of swing sets and hide-and-seek, although she has sometimes been regarded by others as being "a little too quiet". Her best friend since her move to Long Island has been Hannah Quigley, who she generally spends most of her time with. She tends to be a bit guarded at first when it comes to revealing her true self to others and letting people in and often goes great lengths in order to protect herself from being hurt. She believed it was easier to experience love and friendship through a work of fiction than it was to face the emotions it could bring in reality. Hannah is aware of Mia's strange and sensitive personality and because of this tries to be gentle and affectionate in her actions towards her. She thinks of her best friend as being too pure to be corrupted by the world and realizes that she will usually do the right thing. It is through Hannah that Mia has come to terms with who she is and learned to forgive herself and others, as well as realize that even she is worth something. She jokes that Hannah is her conscience, as she has guided her many times in helping her make the right decisions and change her ways. 

Mia was quite speculative about the world, being a smart girl who enjoyed exploring and observing her surroundings from a distance. She was cautious and well-meaning, but dealt with recurring bouts of social anxiety, as she worried about being scrutinized by others and could become discouraged rather easily. She barely managed to tell other people her own name initially on account of her timidity, whispering so quietly that her classmates couldn't even hear her at times and hiding her face behind her textbooks. She was very attached to her mother Linda, whom she frequently confided in and maintained a close relationship with, but always had more of a strained relationship with her father. Lester was a strict, authoritarian man who preferred the hard-nosed, tough approach to life and spent much of his early career going on ''mission trips" with the army. He was emotionally distant from Mia and the rest of her family and once contracted a severe case of meningitis after being sent to the mountains. Linda recalls her labor with Mia as being rather difficult, as she was delivered two weeks early through C-Section at 9 lbs. and looked like "moldy cheese" until the nurses cleaned her up. Her infant daughter had gotten sick with a virus shortly after and had to remain in the hospital for a few days, which led her to lose some weight. Mia had some trouble opening up to others from a young age and spent most of her time in her room, just daydreaming and relaxing on her own. The only exception to this was her mother, whom would never fail to bring out a sillier and more playful side to her personality as the two ran errands together. She was known to be a sweet and innocent little child who lived on a diet of mostly chicken nuggets, fish sticks, coconut milk and puréed fruits and dreamed of opening a toy store.