Kera Staneva
“I want to be different, but I don’t know if it’s that I want to or I just don’t like the mainstream. Maybe both.” Kera Staneva is an AUBG freshman that is passionate about fashion, style and aesthetics. She says every single pair of jeans she owns, but one, are Charlestons — jeans that hardly anyone in Bulgaria wears. “Aesthetics are important for me. Everyone wants to look around themselves and see a beautiful scenery or picture around them. Why do we go to art galleries and why do we watch beautiful movies? It’s aesthetics.”
Kera doesn’t only want to be different — she wants to be the difference. She is passionate about environmentalism and for the past five years she has worked for numerous NGOs. A huge passion of hers is the Fridays for Future movement. “Students go on strike on Fridays and don’t go to school, because we don’t have to go school if we don’t have a future. Why go to school if the planet is going to be dead by the time we have to work and have children?”
Dancing has been a part of Kera’s life for more than 9 years. It has made her more motivated and determined. It showed her the importance of setting goals and working towards them. “I remember my first medal — it was one of the happiest moments of my life,” Kera recalls.
Nevertheless, dancing has often been a stressful and overwhelming experience for Kera. “Just before the final of the most important competition of the year my partner’s mother started screaming that my face, my makeup is not good enough and started putting stuff on my face. I just couldn’t take it anymore and I cried… it was so much drama.” She says this taught her that adults aren’t always the example to follow.
In her personal life, Kera describes herself as outgoing. “In the evening I like to be at my home, but during the day I prefer going out and doing stuff, meeting people.” Whenever she has free time, she loves to read books and watch movies. Kera really values her family and says that the person who has shaped her the most is her mother. “She is my main critic — I learn the most from people who criticize me. She always says that it doesn’t matter if you’re smart, it matters if you’re kind to other people.” Accompanied by laughter, she says, “Maybe at some point in the future I could quit everything and just be a mother.”
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Boris Dechev is a sophomore in AUBG, majoring in Journalism and Mass Communication and Film and Theatre. He is optimistic about the planet’s future because he, just like Kera, wants to make a difference and be the change that will make the planet a better place.
