Page 11 - aruba-today-20230405

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local Wednesday 5 april 2023

Cornelia Marchena:

“Sports help me realize and understand that everything has to be

in balance so I can do everything as best as I can”

(Oranjestad)—Genevedra
Cornelia Marchena is an
18-year-old young woman
who has participated in
artistic gymnastics from a
very young age. She sat
down with our reporter and
shared her athletic tra-
jectory and how this has
helped her in different as-
pects of her life.

Genevedra—better known
as Cornelia among her
loved ones—shared that
her childhood was filled
with experiences that has
helped her transform into a
disciplined, dedicated, in-
dependent and hard-work- primary school: “A lot of improving in gymnastics is to improve in personal as- as an opportunity to help
ing young woman. She is a my friends at the time were herself, because she has pects. Cornelia told our future athletes, using their
person who does her ab- all doing gymnastics, and always been someone that reporter that sports have own experience as athletes
solute best in everything I slowly started to become likes to challenge herself especially helped her be- who have already compet-
she does, and is always really interest as well. One and that loves to experi- come more conscious ed in various tournaments.
willing to go the extra mile day I went to go take a les- ence new things. about her health and edu- “This way, I can share my
if it means she will achieve son and since then I didn’t cation. She indicated that first-hand experience and
something in her life. stop going. Gymnastics re- Cornelia participated in dif- her sport motivates her to help the children. At the
ally became the sport for ferent competition, both on work hard in school and end of the day, this makes
Cornelia started her ath- me,” she explained. national and international in gymnastics so that she me feel as proud and satis-
letic career in artistic gym- She also shared that her level, and this has helped can achieve many things: fied as when I win or com-
nastics when she was in biggest motivation to keep her in different areas of her “It helped me realize and pete,” she stated.
life: “These competitions re- understand that everything
ally expanded my knowl- has to be in balance so Apart from being active
edge on not just gymnas- that I can do everything as in the sport of artistic gym-
tics, but also on the differ- best I can.” nastics, Cornelia also forms
ent countries and cultures I part of a dance group,
get to see and experience, Cornelia is currently also an which is something differ-
like The U.S, Cali in Colom- artistic gymnastics trainer. ent for her: “I started danc-
bia and Costa Rica,” she She shared that teaching ing because a neighbor
expressed. is very different from com- of mine is a dancer in the
peting, but that there are same group. I tried it out
Many use sports as a ve- still some overlap between and loved it very much,”
hicle to keep growing and the two. She sees teaching she stated. q

Prohibited by law: leaving the island with seashells, white sand or corals

(Oranjestad)—Often times, the customs department at the airport intercepts many
tourists leaving the island with seashells, white sand and/or corals as souvenirs.

Conforming to the international treaty of CITES and our local law which protects
our Flora & Fauna, it is absolutely prohibited to take any seashell, sand and coral
outside of Aruba. This is to protect our environment. The high number of seashells,
coral and amount of sand confiscated is very strange and it is suspected that our
own locals are the ones selling these to the tourists, which is unacceptable.

Upon confiscation at the airport, you can also face a fine that they have to pay
before leaving. This is surely not a pleasant experience for the tourist. This also
leads to a negative reaction which can put our tourism in a negative light.

Though we love to accommodate our visitors, let’s all give nature the respect it
deserves by protecting our environment. Stop collecting seashells, white sand
and corals from our shores and stop buying or accepting these from local sellers
or companies.

We want our future generations and visitors to enjoy the beauty of our beaches,
shells and corals in a sustainable way, without destroying or disrupting the Aruban
ecosystem. Help us protect what is ours!q