From seeing the “white flurries” of snow for the first time at age eight to wearing a coat in the dead of summer, Shamoya Hanson has had to adjust to live in Hartford after moving here from Jamaica.
“I used to wear really long dresses when I first came here, and I’d wear jackets and people would like, “yeah, she’s not from here,’’ Shamoya, 15, said.
Shamoya, a junior at the Hartford Journalism and Media Academy, dreams of being an actress on television. Her idol is Reese Witherspoon.
She is an avid shopper whose favorite stores are XSRE and Forever 21.
She was born Aug. 5, 1997 to Rebecca Hanson, a dietary aide at a Bloomfield retirement home, and Michael Hanson, an electrician. She is the youngest of the couple’s three children. Michael Jr. is 24, and Jerrone is 20.
When the family moved to Hartford, Rebecca urged her daughter to speak in standard English rather than in the Jamaican patois. Shamoya said it was hard to make friends at first.
“I didn’t know how to make them,’’ she said.
After many years of playing tennis, volleyball and basketball, she now has a huge group of friends.
Shamoya returns to Jamaica every summer and for many Christmases.
Courtney Leopold is a senior at New Canaan High School.