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Alora doesn't consider herself particularly special. She's just a
person. She was born the youngest child of a French businessman and an
American citizen. They met in Virginia while her mother was attending
the opera and the two struck up a conversation during intermission.
A singer herself, Grace Martin had always aspired to perform on stage,
but had been told by a former teacher that while her voice was good
enough for teaching, it was not good enough for performance. This
judgment stamped out any hopes she might have had.
Two years after their meeting, Etienne proposed and Grace accepted. A
year later they had their first child then moved to Atlanta. Alora was
the fifth and only girl. She and each of her siblings inherited some
sort of musical talent, but Alora was the only one whose voice shone out
from the others. Her mother gave her lessons from the time she was
seven and encouraged her to get involved in theatre. She performed as
one of the daughters in the opera "Werther" when she was just five years
old. Besides singing lessons, she enjoyed piano and guitar lessons as well.
When Alora was ten, her father's business expanded its presence in the
nation state of Japan and appointed her father as the head. The family
packed up and moved halfway around the world to a strange and wondrous
place.
Grace had hoped that Alora would use her talent to continue her studies
in the musical arts. While Alora never stopped her lessons, she had
other passions as well, and didn't see herself as a professional
performer. Science was one such passion, particularly botany an
zoology. After taking exams for secondary school, Alora was accepted to
the Ishikawa School of Science and Technology, first in its class in Japan.
It was there that Alora discovered Aikido. She stumbled upon a group
practising one day after school. She had been looking for the Karate
group, but after witnessing that class she decided to study Aikido.
Currently she is a third degree blackbelt.
As her years of secondary school began to come to a close, Alora had to
decide what to do with herself. More and more she began to pay
attention to the Federation. Finally, she applied to the academy and
was accepted.
It was challenging. Alora wasn't a genius, but she was smart. She
graduated in the top three percent of her class - but a very large part
of that was due to her diligence, hard work, and unwillingness to give
up. That, and lack of sleep, especially since she specialised in Botany
and Zoology with a minor in languages. Summer break? What was that?
She kept busy outside of the academy too with her music and her Aikido
which left little time for other pursuits beyond those.
She managed to survive graduation and has found herself posted to a
starship and is excited to begin her career in the federation.
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