Of course I haven't become a writer as you would understand it. My family eventually moved to Ireland leaving me in Saint-Petersburg. I graduated from the University with a Bachelor of Economics. Then we all moved to Sydney and I started learning English. I joined a rock band and also started singing in the jazz cafes. Since then I've worked as a model, a waitress, an extra, a project manager, and a medico-legal clerk. I’ve been changing jobs for 10 years, searching for the one that would satisfy me financially, socially and emotionally. And then I’ve realized that this ever changing range of skills, places, people and tasks is indeed my career. We all have different challenges, and I finally accept mine.   

Being part of Reflections Hope was a choice I made to do something that wasn’t based on cliché perceptions of success or failure. It’s an opportunity to be myself and create ways for people around me to be happier. Not in an “I’ll show you how to make a million dollars an hour and lose 20 pounds a day” way but in a “relax and enjoy your life now” way because your life is happening right this minute but you have years to make it better. By deciding what’s really important to us and not judging ourselves based on somebody else, we can ultimately make goods things happen.