Episode Transcript
Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 0:00
your femininity is powerful in all its forms, exceptional women, rare girls must be appreciated in every way for their perspectives, actions, thoughts and their unique ways of being. Such rare girls are inspiring. And this is what this podcast is all about. Hello, my name is Aziz and my guest today is Victoria boatyard. Victoria is a flex alumna of 2022, from Cherkasy, Ukraine to Franklin, Indiana in the United States. She is a Franklin Community High School 2023 Ukrainian global university 2020 to participate participant a parks exchange student of February, a park distinguished leader, a volunteer with more than 100 Volunteering hours, a German national Olympiad 2022 qualifier and an activist for Ukraine and the American community. Currently, she is preparing to enroll to a college in spring for international relations and political science. In the US, Victoria finished an art school in Ukraine and had exhibits of her works. And she even won a couple of our competitions in Ukraine. And in the USA, she was also in bring change to mind Indiana teen advisory board, which focuses on teens, mental health and work of mental health clubs in high schools. Victoria, how are you today?
Viktoriia Burdiad 1:51
Hello, I'm doing awesome. How are you?
Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 1:55
I'm feeling lucky to be alive. I'm feeling grateful for every moment and I'm feeling very curious about you as a person. So I'll begin with this question. If your friends who are observing you that you know you were to describe your personality, what would they say? I
Viktoriia Burdiad 2:15
would say they will describe me as inspirational, very extroverted, supportive. I say a lot of compliments to people, and I will support people in their projects and their goals. And also I would be described as creative, because I like art and like great creating new things.
Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 2:38
That's fantastic. It makes me again, think about art. Do you try to be complimentary sharing good vibes, you know, given people a positive experience when you create your artworks? Or is it more about personal expression?
Viktoriia Burdiad 2:57
So I would say it's both.
I think what I tried to portray in art are
emotions and feelings. And I also want to the viewers to find some meaning for themselves. I generally like to paint portraits of women, not only because of beauty, but because of the story you can see in their faces or eyes or backgrounds. In the future like to maybe do Ukrainian series of Ukrainian women in national clothing, and different backgrounds. So that you people could see not only this basic portrait of Ukrainian In other words, where Shawanda is born, and live in a village but different types of Ukrainian women that are in army that are successful moms or successful educators and so on.
Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 3:58
That's really interesting, especially that you describe the story that people can understand and absorb through people's details, facial expressions, mannerisms, or whatever is, you know, happening in the artwork. Are you an empath in addition to being an extrovert when you walk around? Can you immerse yourself in the stories walking around inside every person that you are near?
Viktoriia Burdiad 4:31
Yes, I would say so that I am a big Empath, as you said, Yes, I feel myself there the other people's feelings and they tell their stories. You know, when there's a sad story, a person is selling very emotional story of theirs. I may cry and support them and stuff like that. So I would some people may say that's maybe a disadvantage, since it makes you go through roller coaster of emotions. But I will say that's a good thing, since I feel that's what makes me human. Because emotions, and feelings and thoughts that was, that's what makes us different from animals and other creatures.
Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 5:23
I agree 100%. So you feel emotions deeply, you can have compassion and a deep empathy for other people, and you can cry for their sorrows. And I can see how this can make you a brilliant artist. I'm wondering, is this related as well to the choice of international relations and political science? Or was this more motivated by the war? And it may gave you this decision in order to support Ukraine, and a different way after the invasion?
Viktoriia Burdiad 6:00
Yes. So you said both of the reasons, yes. Because I feel a lot of people story so closely, I feel that this world needs to be for everyone. And everyone needs to be fed in good conditions and have an education. And I feel that political science right now plays a big role, not only in general world, but especially for Ukraine. Right now, as you said, Yes, after war, I did realize that the more politically educated Ukrainians who have the more good deployments Ukraine will have in the future, the the higher possibility will be that Ukraine will rebuild faster, since I will gain more support from other countries. And a back row of me wanted to be more engaged in international relations was in my exchange in the US. So us is a very multicultural country. And I met people from all those different countries, and they shared their culture with me. And I just realized how interesting in this to me, and how interesting it was for me to represent Ukrainian culture to others. I realized that's, that's not something I would like to do. I like to be an ambassador, Ukrainian representative in un or any other organization, as far as I am representing my country and listening to others, and I will make some change in the world. That's something I would like to do.
Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 7:41
This is fantastic. And yes, I want to speak a bit more about that as well. But I want to explore a bit more about you. You believe in kindness, you believe in good deeds, you know, compliments to people sharing positivity. So I'll begin by asking a few things. When you went to the US, did you at first have a culture shock where you felt people are too open? Emotionally compared to Ukraine? Maybe you had a poker face or a bitch face? And people notice and said, Why are you so angry? And you're like, No, no, I'm happy, I don't know or something like that.
Viktoriia Burdiad 8:21
Yes. So culture shock is very common. Yes, for people who live or travel in other countries. For me personally, for some reason, I did not notice a very big cultural shock, I felt more like an adventurer who tried to find as more different things as possible. It was very exciting for me to see what's different. I would say the biggest, like shock and confusion I had to struggling with food and teenagers here. I feel that American teenagers are a little bit different from Ukrainian ones. I feel Ukrainian teenagers are more concentrated on studies and more concentrate on other people's opinions. And I think they're more motivated to reach their goals. Since our two Ukrainian children may live like in average family, yes, he's ever rich finances or even lower. So I feel because of that people have higher motivations to you know, getting into that university in full ride or travel the world. American teenagers are more free and open. And sometimes I felt they did not show enough respect for maybe teachers. And I didn't feel as if they were as excited to know me as an exchange student at first, because they're just so used to see In all those different people in their country and in their schools, so at first I felt that some Americans were not interested. But after some time passed by, and I joined some clubs and extracurricular activities, I did find some people who are interested in cultures and countries. And then I just gained friends because I was from different country, I realized that if someday Americans would that's the right people around people who have around you.
Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 10:34
I agree, 100%. And since we're speaking about the US, and you are a self declared activist for Ukraine and America, what do you advocate? What do you try to either change or get for Ukraine? Or what kinds of activities are these activist activities?
Viktoriia Burdiad 10:56
So there's a Ukrainian society of Indiana here and my state, and it's located in Indianapolis. And so I will be talking more about the activities that I have done since the full scale war in Ukraine. So I joined different protests for Ukraine. There were all different people, mostly Ukrainian immigrants, but there were also Americans. I also gave an interview for BBC talking about war, and what are my feelings and thoughts about it. Also, I tried to do fundraisers and educate people in my school by making presentations about war and sharing posters around the school telling people to do the bare minimum what they can is to at least educate themselves and read numbers, news. And they can they can financially support Ukraine by donating into different organizations. So whether the fundraiser that I tried to do, I did some t shirt designs, and I posted them on Etsy. And I think I got around $200. And I connected them to save life in Ukraine, which is an army organization that buys different gadgets and supplies for Ukrainian army. Before that, before the full scale invasion, people do not know about Ukraine as much. I will say that one person, one in 10, people would know what Ukraine is, along with people just saying like, always in near Russia. And it made me more motivated to tell them that Ukraine is not just by Russia, but it's it's an independent country with very rich history and culture. So there was an educational week in my American high school where I go around, and presentations, I did presentation in each of my classes, and a few of them were after school. And I got lots of positive responses. And some people have said that they really would like to visit Ukraine. But after war started, remembering those words makes me a little bit hard broken. Because I do believe that in the future, Ukraine will be again, very a good spot for tourists by right now. I think it will take a couple of years to rebuild back again. And it was just very sad to me thinking that, you know, other exchange students friends can visit them in the future in the near future, right. But mine will not be able to do that.
Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 14:02
Thank you. And before we speak about Ukraine about the situation etc. I'm curious about something. You have been to high school in Ukraine. You have been to high school and different clubs in the US. How are the flex alumni or the flex community? What are their traits and character or characteristics compared to normal high schoolers, whether in Ukraine or in the US?
Viktoriia Burdiad 14:33
So I think flex community is very awesome community of young people who are here to change the world make their own startups and make their own projects. From what I noticed, affects students are studying very well. And, you know, in Ukrainian High School and American high school, they are very community and sociable, and they mostly have a lot of friends and they make initiatives outside of school such as different fundraisers for Ukraine, as I said, I'll say I think they're just very ambitious. And even there, they are afraid to do new things. We still do it no matter what. And that's how I think facts students are different from any average student.
Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 15:28
Thank you, and to speak about February 24, that they have the full scale invasion. How did you hear about the war? How did you feel? What was your situation? The story? Tell me everything?
Viktoriia Burdiad 15:46
Yes, of course. So it was February 23. It was kind of right at night. Around 11pm, I was doing my assignment for art in my sketchbook. And while I was sketching, I just decided to check social media as usual as it happens. And I went to Snapchat, which is a very popular social media for Americans. And I had one of the Ukrainian students was my friend and Snapchat, and she posted a story there. And there was a picture of explosions. And it said there that Russian started rubbing my city. And I was I was generally very confused at first. I was, I was like, what, and then I closed it. And I went to Instagram. And that's where the wave of those news hit me. And because I was following some news channels, I'm regarding the news and how they said that there are already explosions in cave, which is relatively close to my city. So I found that very quickly, and I called my mom in Telegram, which is the messenger app. And I told her that they're alright, excursions and cave. And apparently, she didn't know that. She knew that they started in around the new Pro hurricane area. But once she got to know about a cave, she panics as well. So that's how my first my first news day went after that, I could not sleep, I went to sleep around 2am. And I didn't go to the school the next day, because I was just very emotionally drained and anxious. And around for around two weeks, maybe a week, I was checking my phone very often and checking on on my parents or what and other vaccinations and my classmates in Ukraine. So it was it was really a week that I wish did not happen in my life and why for other Ukrainians. It changed our lives. And one, one click.
Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 18:15
I agree, I actually was there in Kyiv, on February 24, when the bombs started, and the evacuation and spending eight days trying to evacuate, and in shelters and things like that. So I had the full, real life experience of that whole panic and situation. And now that the war has been going on for six months, how did it change you as a person? How do you feel? How do your friends feel? What is the latest, like psychological update on the emotions, the changes the transformation,
Viktoriia Burdiad 18:56
so I would say changed my mindset a lot. It made me appreciate and be grateful for where I am right now that I'm in safety. And I have a roof above my head, and I have people supporting me for some time, and sometimes I get this guilty feeling. But I feel I feel bad that like some Ukrainians died or had to move to other countries or cities while I'm in safety, and I did not get to experience all those awful things. It's a weird feeling to explain. I would say it's somehow a way to to throw survivor's guilt, but I'm not just survivor. It's a little bit hard to explain, but I hope you will understand what I mean by that. Also made me realize that See how powerful and strong Ukrainians are and how much I love my country and the nation. And then you realize that in the future, I do indeed want to return back to my home country. I would say that from my young years and my middle school, I feel a lot of Ukrainians had this mindset that there was nothing to do in Ukraine. And, you know, Europe is better, and there are more opportunities, and Ukraine will not change, it will be after this, it will be like that in the future. And this phrase, oh, always made me very annoyed. Because instead of talking, I wish those people actually did do impact and help. I'm really grateful to volunteers and different nonprofit organizations in Ukraine that are helping our soldiers and refugees, and so on. I believe that those Ukrainians are the real future for our country, I believe that affects communities also be a big contribution to Ukraine as well. Because a lot of them do plan, maybe to study abroad, and then get all of their knowledge and return back to their country.
Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 21:21
That's really, really inspiring. And to finish on a more positive note, I don't know, how do you manage your stress these days? How do you keep your mental health okay? Is it mostly through art? Or by talking to people to forget your problems? Or how do you keep yourself balanced and sane when so many catastrophes are at your fingertips in your news, feed and social media,
Viktoriia Burdiad 21:50
I will say that talking to people is very essential to me. Since I'm an extrovert, I can be by myself. And I do like spending time on myself. But if it's more than two days, I start feeling weary, stressed and anxious, and along with my thoughts. So spending time with my host family and my friends, helps a lot, because it just makes your thoughts move away a bit for some time. Also, yes, art helps me a lot. I like journaling and also listen to some educational videos in YouTube. Or, you know, any news that happened in social media makes me switch my brain for a little bit. Almost, I would say studying also helps me because I just like studying in general and and the like, gaining new knowledge. And when I'm concentrating on something, you know, for example, studying it just makes me feel stressed for some reason. Yes, I would see how some people get more stressed by studying and memorizing things. But it makes me feel more productive and beneficial when I do.
Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 23:14
Thank you so much, Victoria. This was such an enriching conversation. You're doing a lot of great work for Ukraine and all I can say is Slava grainy. Hello am Slava. Thank you. And I wish you a brilliant positive day full of hope, and hopefully a lot of good news of victory for Ukraine.
Viktoriia Burdiad 23:39
Thank you so much for inviting me to this podcast. Talking to you was a very big project to me and an honor. I really enjoyed sharing my thoughts with you and I really hope that the listeners go enjoy your podcast as well.
