E093 Evelina Kanarska

Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 0:08 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 Evelina Cahners. Ca Evelina is a Ukrainian model from Nikolai of Ukraine. Because of the war, she moved to Brussels in Belgium. She is a co founder of a youth organization, Marie de Jr. That provides business education for teens and creates social projects for Nikolayev city. Also, she is a member of the Regional Youth Council of Nikolayev region. And she studies politics, maths and business at the British School of Brussels, which is one of the top 10 best schools in Europe, as well as studying at her Ukrainian school at the same time, Evelina wants student Olympiads in English and Ukrainian languages a few times. She recently has done an Erasmus exchange in Latvia for a week. And in her free time, she likes helping with organizing different events and festivals, as well as pursuing her modeling career. Evelina. How are you today? Evelina Kanarska 1:50 I'm fine. I'm good. Thank you for introducing me. Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 1:55 I'm happy. I'm honored and very curious about you. So I'll begin with this question. How would you describe yourself and your personality? I mean, if your friends could be asked, Who is Evelina? How do you describe her? What would they say? Evelina Kanarska 2:16 Maybe they would say that I'm up to everything. Because every time when someone offers me some opportunity, usually, I'm, I will be likely to join it also made people very often tell me that I that my laughter is so funny that everyone starts to laugh with me. Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 2:40 I love that. So your laughter is contagious, and it gives a good mood to everybody else. And I'm curious, you say yes, to all the opportunities, what motivates you to go out of your comfort zone to go into the unknown, and to try these new experiences, new responsibilities and new things. Evelina Kanarska 3:03 So maybe, because I did it before, like, join something that I didn't know what exactly it was. And every time I understand that, every every opportunity that comes to my life, it is on purpose, and then after some time, I will gain some more opportunities, thanks to what I did before. And that will help me in my development. And just, I don't know, sometimes you join something just for fun. And then it comes up to something big and very important in your life. Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 3:35 I love about so it's awareness that opportunities multiply that in the past, you said yes to something that opened new doors and new great things in your life. And so I'll ask you on the other side, how do you avoid burnout? If you say yes to everything? How do you avoid? Like, how can you stay productive, give everything the attention it needs, and at the same time, take care of your mental health. Evelina Kanarska 4:06 So now as the studying year began, it became even more complicated for me because I go to schools at once I have my organization and cetera, et cetera. But still, I don't know how but I managed to do everything. First of all, I value my time, very much. So if I don't like some event, I just can stand up and go home. Usually, not always, of course. I can go on and off and go home at school. Yes, but usually, I really am. Also if I'm on the tram somewhere, I try to do something that I need like a piece of homework. So I will have more time at home. Just chill. Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 4:48 I like that. So you say yes to many things. But if you go to something or you begin something and find it's not interesting, it's not worth your time. If you would stop doing it and do something that is more valuable in your life, is this correct? Evelina Kanarska 5:06 Yes, yes. And also I tried to put my health and my sleep and eating enough on the first place always. So it's really, it's really helpful because if you don't do this, it will just come out of your house and run out of your house very soon. Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 5:26 I agree. 100%. And so I will ask you, a lot of teens are people pleasers, they say yes. But then if they don't like something they feel obligated to do it. What is the reason or the thinking? That gives you the power to set boundaries to say, no, after you start something, and to get up and go? What is the explanation in your mind that gives you that motivation. Evelina Kanarska 5:55 So if you refuse from Samsung, it doesn't mean that you're a bad person, it just made sense not for you. There's always a good and normal reasons for you to quit Samsung, for example, just saw a few weeks ago, the studying year started. And they had to choose three subjects that I have to study for the next two years. And one of them was art, and design. But then after like a week or two of art, I understood that I'm not the type of person who will be drawing every day for many hours going to galleries for every weekend. And I just said that, no, I don't want to go to it and switch it to another subject. What I'm very happy about. So if I didn't do it didn't have the enough courage to do it. I will be still struggling on the lesson that they don't like. And we would have been struggling for two years. Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 6:50 I understand. And I value that very much and to ask you, since you moved from Nikolayev to Brussels, did you find it easy to make new friends? Is that smile and laugh that you have a reason where everybody even strangers think you're friendly? Or do you have some kind of bitch face and people think, Oh, my God, she looks so angry. I don't know about you're not that way. Evelina Kanarska 7:18 So I noticed that here in Belgium, people are a bit more not so talkative and open as people used to be in Ukraine. And but like, it's not very bad, but in just the mentality, or maybe I just go up in Ukraine, and I know all these aspects, I know the language and everything and hear everything. If I grew up in Belgium, it would be much easier for me to find friends. It's still possible, but you have to put more effort than usual because of the language of another culture. I never moved before. And I have never had an opportunity to build my friends circle from zero. Again, I think I will manage to have a lot of friends in some time. But I think I need some more time for this. Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 8:03 Thank you. I understand. And actually, I encourage you some people who went to our foreigners and went to Belgium, they said even after some time, they can get to know people. But there is a distance that they never feel they become real friends, compared to Ukraine where it's much more possible. And can you tell me about Marie de? How did that project come to your mind? What did you feel you can contribute what our teams and Mykolaiv missing? And how did that project? The story of it. Evelina Kanarska 8:41 So there's an interesting story. So me and my friend, Alexandra Park, Nico, we were in organization that was connected to a political party in our city, but then a conflict in the country or in a party in political party occurred. And we had to leave this organization despite our De Graaff to doing something better for the city for people and stuff. So we decided to make sense on our own. It was mostly my friends ideas, I can say I did everything he did the most. And so he came to the biggest business club in the whole south of Ukraine, which was located in McGuire and offered them to make a yes wing of the organization. And so then his plan how he wants to do this and they said okay, we'll give you a chance, of course. So the how this organization worked, works still. So teams from Eagle FC to from 14 years old to 18, or maybe even more, they joined the organization and pay 300 humanists a month. That's about like 10 Euro not a lot and all and for this is a get get some Um, business, an opportunity to attend business events, trainings, webinars, workshops and stuff to have more knowledge in business, they can also network with intrapreneurs. In our city, we even have the chance to speak to people that are in the Forbes list of Ukraine and we visited different factories and stuff. So it's really just an experience and all this money that we got. We spent them on social projects from for Miko fct, for example, our biggest project that I really like, is doing an art object in the center of the city, which is like a cylinder with writings I love Nikolaev on like all the languages of the world, unfortunately, we didn't have a chance to establish it. So it is like reading a line somewhere on some factory. Because of the war. We couldn't establish it. So we didn't have enough time. Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 10:58 I understand. And since you're mentioning the war, how was that day for you? February 24. I know the war was there since 2014. But this invasion, that was a surprise to everybody. How did you hear about it? How did you feel? What's the story of that day for you? Evelina Kanarska 11:20 So I can officially say that I overslept the war. So the first explosions could be short in Miko life on the like four or five in the morning on 24th of February, and my mother for them one of the first, but I didn't hear them. I was just sleeping because I was doing my homework till late at night. So my mother, let me sleep until like 6am. And then she woke me up and said, like the war had started. At first, I didn't believe her because she was very nervous about the war, if you will, all past few weeks, so I thought she's just maybe overthinking or something. But we were ready to the war. Because a week before the war, she my mother woke up in the middle of the night and said, yes, the bar will be I feel it or something. I don't know. I never believe in some spiritual things and mystery, but she had this feeling. But maybe it's reasonable because the news staff, so we woke up. And as my mother isn't try driving a car, so we couldn't leave the city immediately, like everybody did. But maybe it's good because on this day, it was almost impossible to leave the city and Ukraine without staying in the traffic jam, what will be like, hundreds and hundreds of kilometres because everyone wants to live. So the first day we left in our city, and on the second day, we had a ticket for a train to live to Western Ukraine. But they were all for the Union. And in the morning, my mother decided to go and check the railway station. Is it still alive? Is it working and asked maybe to change definitely will be at stuff. And she came there and the railway station was just closed. So we're like sitting there thinking how we can get out of the city, because the city is located on the south of Ukraine close to headstone. So when you definitely that they don't have a lot of time to leave the city because it's quite close to the border and stuff. But we were lucky enough to mitigate it. One of our friends were going on the car to Western Ukraine so and they told us that they live in like in five minutes. So we should, I don't know few minutes to pack all our codes and be in another part of the city. So when we left the city and just like in half an hour after we left, the first invasion on Maga life began. And then I looked at the news and they see the video that may be one of my neighbors was filming that the lines and troops of fascia landed just like in front of my window. So I felt that I was like Lucky to leave Mughlai soon. And then we spent one night maybe on Western Ukraine and when we wanted to go to war, so but all the trends towards so go super full. Everyone wanted to leave your grade at this moment. So we went to Hungary, spent there also like one night and went to also to our friends spent there like a week. And then we decided to go to Brussels. It was a bit spontaneous. But it was mainly because there were a lot of opportunities to have a place to sleep in Brussels or I don't know. And also many years ago, we wanted to move to Belgium and also Belgium is one of the few countries in Europe that I couldn't speak in English. What is very good because we both speak English very good, but not other languages maybe so and then we went to Brussels and from the time till now on Matt Damon here. Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 14:58 Thank you that was It's emotional. And you're so lucky to have escaped just a few hours before the troops landed in front of your window and you mentioned English and how, in Belgium people speak English much better than many European countries and you want Olympiads in the language language? Let's say there are some Ukrainian teenagers who are listening or from all over the world who don't speak English. Well, they wonder what's going on. They think the school lessons are so boring. What is your method for improving grammar, improving accent improving vocabulary? What do you do in order to work on and progress your English language abilities. Evelina Kanarska 15:46 So I'm really thankful for my parents for giving me into a very good school in Ukraine, which is English language oriented. So we had English from the first year of school five times a week. So maybe that's why I had a good English also, my aunt is a is an English teacher. So but that's not not only old people who went to the school, to special school, or who have an aunt who is an English teacher, they will be definitely good English speakers and other children won't be good English speakers, as I noticed that a good language comes to you, when you're passionate about it, you really want to learn it. And also that is a system. So we have to learn it, at least for Okay, 15 minutes, but every every day, for example, what happens with my French language, I know it but not very good, because I very rarely come to study in it. And when I try to catch up with my French, after months and months, not speaking it, I understand all those people who are bad in English, because now I'm also in the area of in this language that I can speak good, is that. So maybe it's just the system and your personal passion, and encouraging yourself may miss the soul and to practice in with native speakers. If you get a boyfriend or girlfriend or just a very close friend that doesn't speak your native language, you will be obliged to learn English very, very quickly. So that works also very, very good. Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 17:28 Thank you. And I liked that you mentioned passion, and that it's important for progressing on and being persistent with the language. Tell me about the friends and the people you surround yourself with? Are you looking with those people with that passionate fire in their eyes? Who are always organizing projects being active in this world? Is that something that you recognize you feel is rare? Or are you so active that you want chilled out relaxed people so that they calm you down? Evelina Kanarska 18:04 I think I mix both types of these people. When I was younger, I always want maybe more time, I wanted to get friends with some cool people like what they considered cool in my circle. But I never thought that maybe I should have friends with people that share the same interests as me. So if I like some active life, doing projects, improving myself, and then trying to get friends with a person that has a totally different, I don't know, sense of mine dent targets and patients in their life, it doesn't mean that they're bad, but just like the another person, maybe I shouldn't be really friends with this person and try to most speak with people that will share my interests. And such friendship is also very productive, because it will maybe it's the same what happened to Steve Jobs and Bill Gates and other very good people have say that they gained a lot of in their life. That if you have friends that are the same as you, you can make some project together, you can follow the negotiation together to open Apple or Tesla together. And I hope you understand what they mean like your friends make you and your life. That's all. Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 19:29 Yes, I understand. And it seems to me that being ambitious, having big goals, bigger dreams is important for you. Is this something you inherited from your parents or because of social media? You have seen a lot of people who have a perfect life and you thought I want that too? Or is it just you're born that way you cannot be in one place you want to always create and develop Evelina Kanarska 20:00 Hard question. So as of course, we all are sitting in social media and sometimes thinking, Oh, wow, he's spending all the time on Maldives and Bali. And maybe that's a dream life. But I think that your dream life is life when you're leaving just normal life, but very successful and good and surrounded by very good people, and you're working and developing and not just laying on the beach all day, even if you're listening carefully to and watching vloggers, maybe you'll see more than just a beautiful picture because I tried to analyze what all these loggers these millions of subscribers did before in their life to be successful in some way, because they have a big audience. Some projects, they understood that they also work hard, as all the people do, but they just don't show it a lot. So if you see some model on Instagram, maybe she did a lot, a lot of work before but now she just don't show when it isn't showing, just showing the visual pictures. But these pictures are the result of your hard work before. Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 21:11 I like that it seems to me like you're someone who reflects or tries to understand the world to get the lessons. And so at the same time, I'm I assume you love networking and meeting new people to get all the opportunities. In reality? Are you an introvert was pretending to be an extrovert? Or are you an even balanced ambivert? Or are you an extrovert, deep down, Evelina Kanarska 21:40 I always considered myself as an extrovert. Because when I don't speak to people, for some time, I feel very bad. I feel like I'm I don't know, out of this board. But also sometimes, of course, I need some break. Because I can see people all the time. Sometimes I just want to sit alone at home. So I have friends that can be so so much more than me. They can be spent 24 hours a day and night. And but sometimes I need to bring but mostly, I think I'm an extrovert. Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 22:17 Thank you for that. And you mentioned that your organization was somehow related or political party and Nikolayev. So maybe you're well connected into the into the scene. What do you think now seven months after the beginning of the full invasion would be the future for Ukraine? Do you see it as some positive Do you will see that the economy will need a long time to recover that those millions of Ukrainians abroad will stay outside that because they already have their schools, their life, their new jobs, new friendships maybe? Or what is your expectation for the future, and of what will happen to help Ukraine recover. Evelina Kanarska 23:08 So it's hard to look at the future. But I really, really hope that Ukraine will go through the with everything and become even better than than it was before the war again, very soon. But as I'm studying politics, and just maybe everyone knows that, in the political and economical world, everything comes very slowly. And that's reasonable. So I hope that in a few years, maybe maximum five years, every single come to how it was before, but maybe even this war stops. The also always there will be a danger from the Russia side anyway, because we can't undo them, our neighbors, they will still be our neighbors for the rest of our lives. So there will be always a treat from Russia, as we do for Russia, all the time. And about the refugees that came outside of Ukraine. I know this like four or 5 million of Ukrainians. Actually, it's not super a lot because there are like 42 million of Ukrainians in Ukraine. So just the ACE part of all the population. I think that many people will come back because not everyone is able to learn the language, get a job, get a school, get friends and just get used to new climate, new way of living. I think that many people who come back, especially the families whose men, husbands and buses are left in Ukraine, but also some people will stay of course, because someone found here the laugh their new friends, or some like teenagers like me who are planning to go to school and then to university somewhere outside of Ukraine, but maybe in five, six Yes, they will come back to Erbil Ukraine. But it's very hard to predict now. We'll see later. Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 25:08 Thank you so much. Really all I can say is Laval grainy, slow. Thank you Evelina for participating. This was my honor. My privilege I wish you success in your school success and applying to the universities you wish to go to. And I wish you a great week. Evelina Kanarska 25:33 Thank you. Thank you as this Misha Misha Reykjavik