Episode Transcript
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 Olena Litvin.
Olena is a marketing student at National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy.
She likes literature, theater, dancing, and stretching.
In April of 2021, Olena was the ambassador of the global initiative of the United Nations
Children's Fund, the world's largest lesson, where she gave a lesson for Ukrainian school
children and she raised the issue of the consequences of climate change.
In May of 2022, Olena met with German students at the gymnasium Stefanium Haus 2 in the city
of Asherzleben and told about the Russian-Ukrainian war.
Olena, how are you today?
Yeah, good evening to everyone.
Thank you.
I'm excited and everything is okay.
I'm happy you are okay.
And I'm curious about you, so I'll begin with this question.
If your friends could describe your personality, what would they say about you?
Oh, thank you for question.
I think I'm responsible, open-minded, easy-going, sociable, active person.
I'm also very kind and reliable.
So I think they will talk about these things and this characteristic about me.
Thank you.
That's so interesting.
And since you're mentioning you're sociable, you're open-minded, I assume you're friendly.
Does it happen to you that some people think you have a poker face, which is common among
Eastern European girls, where they think, oh my God, she looks angry or sad, even if
you're happy and okay?
Is this your situation or it's not about you?
Yeah, I think it is because when I take a picture or my friend take a picture of me
and then we see and look at this picture and everyone said that I have like poker face
and I'm like a little bit sad, but I'm very friendly and it's just photo.
I don't know why I have such face in photo, but it is.
Thank you.
And since you're sociable, does it mean it is easy for you to make new friends or is
that something where you need more time, more meetings and conversations before you open
to any new person?
I think it's very personal and it depends on the person who I communicate with because
I communicate with a lot of people and every person is different and when I meet new friend,
I can be very sociable and I can be not very sociable.
It depends on people.
When I talk a little bit with this person and I understand that this type of person
is very calm, kind and friendly, I think I can trust these people and I open to them.
Thank you.
That's interesting and therefore, I will ask you these days, what inspires you?
Is it meeting with people, communicating with them?
Is it stretching and other activities like that or what do you do in order to feel inspired
relaxed and in a good mood?
Yeah.
Okay.
Thank you for this great question.
I think my main inspiration now are people, nature and maybe sport because I'm very sociable,
as I said, and when I communicate with people, I take new emotions and this emotion very
inspires me and I feel very relaxed after that and I feel very cool and it inspires
me a lot.
Thank you.
You are inspired, it seems, a lot by nature, by things that are natural like people.
Are you an empath?
Do you have the ability to feel people's energy, their mood and therefore to be affected by
how they feel or is it more about the conversation, the ideas, the topics and the lessons?
Yeah, I have this characteristic because I'm emotional and I like to talk with people and
to listen to their problems and I like to support people.
I think I can support people and I can help people in this situation.
So yes, I think this characteristic is mine.
Thank you.
And how do you deal then if you're listening to people who are complaining about their
problems or they're feeling in a bad mood?
Does it also go like that negative energy inside you and change your mood in a negative
way or how do you deal, for example, if you're around angry people or depressed, who can
have a really bad mood?
I read a lot of psychology books and I know some psychological effects.
So when I talk with these people like depressed, I know what they will do and what their action
will be sometimes.
So it's not so easy for me, but when I speak with depressed people, it's more easy for
me than when I speak with angry people and I try to withdraw from their problems and
to support them.
I like that you seem to be kind and helpful and supportive.
How is that related to you choosing marketing as a topic of study?
Yeah, when I was in the 11th grade in school, I need to choose what will be my profession
and I choose marketing because I read a lot about marketing and I think it's a very good
profession because it has two sides.
One side is creative so I can improve my skills and I can do whatever I want and another side
is business and economics because when you study marketing, you study the base of economics,
you study the economical history and I think it's very good for my future and for the time
where we live.
I think that everyone should know the base of politics and the base of economy.
It will be very good for our mind.
Thank you.
And I know you study at the Kiev Mohyla Academy, which is known to be like the Harvard of Ukraine.
How was the choice to go to that university?
Was it a dream you always had since childhood?
Tell me the story of that and your experience there.
Yeah, it wasn't my childhood dream, but when I found out about the Kiev Mohyla Academy,
I understood that it's my place and I should be here and study here because it was a wonderful
description of one of the best universities in Ukraine and it's very important to me that
the university will have tradition, values and like another friendly people in this university
community and it was very difficult to be and to apply the documents to this university
because they have a big rating, but I do everything that I can and now I'm here at this university
and I'm very happy that I study here.
Thank you.
And I would like to know about your theater experience.
Is it a way for you to use your psychology skills to be someone else and live different
lives through theater or how was the story of that and what do you love about theater?
Yeah, when I first visited the theater, I understood that this is my place.
This is my place of strength because when I came home after theater, I realized that
I had a lot of emotions, I feel alive and it's a very cool place for me and when I found
out that in my university there is a theater club, I apply a document to this club and
I think this club, theater club, will help me and can improve my public speaking skills.
Thank you.
That's interesting how much you love to develop yourself.
It's really, really cool.
And to ask you about February 24th, the invasion, how was that day for you?
Tell me the story of how did you hear about the war coming to Kiev?
Did you hear bombs, air raids, sirens?
What did you do?
Did you go to other countries in Europe or other parts of Ukraine?
How was your experience in this period, in these months?
Yeah, I remembered the day because at that time I woke up at five o'clock in the morning
because of the noise.
I heard the noise in the street.
First I saw that it was like fireworks, but then I understood that it was war, the war
started and my mom said to me that war started because Boryspil is bombed.
Boryspil is a city near Kiev and there is airport and that airport was bombed.
I wasn't panicked, but I tried, I tried not to panic, but it was very hard and difficult
to understand that at any time you can be killed.
And then we went to my grandmother's village and from that village we went to Germany.
Thank you.
How was your experience in Germany, especially that some of the Ukrainian people who went
there they say it's more difficult to make friends when you're new in Germany compared
to making friends in Ukraine.
Maybe it's a different culture or people are somehow, you know, they don't open up so fast
to new people or what was your experience with it?
Yeah, my mother, my sister and I were in Germany and we lived with German family at this family
house.
They are very kind people and they support us a lot.
It was very difficult really for the first time because I thought and we had plans that
we would be in Germany just for a month because we think that in a month the war is over.
But we were in Germany, we have been in Germany for six months.
It was hard because I lived in a village and I don't have any friends.
I communicate with my German family, with my family and with children that lived in
this village.
Yeah, it was another mentality, it was another culture.
It was very unusual and it was very unusual because you understood that you are here not
because you are a tourist, you are here because you are a refugee and you understand and realize
that there is a war in your country and you realize that your father is in your country.
My father was in Kiev at that time and a lot of my grandmother, grandfather, they were
in Kiev.
So it was very anxious and very difficult for us, for all of us.
Thank you.
Yes, I can imagine the trauma, the difficulties and all I can say is Slava Ukrainyi.
Hiroem Slava.
Thank you Olena and now that you are in a different period of your life, you have been
through different challenges and now you are at Kiev Muhyla Academy.
What things about life did you learn that you are living now?
How different are you in 2022 compared to 2021?
Do you appreciate every day more because maybe something could happen, things can change
fast?
Are you now more optimistic or more cosmopolitan or how are you different now compared to one
year ago?
Yes, I changed a lot and recently my mom said to me that I grew up and I became a new person.
I think it's because of the war and I think Ukrainians, every Ukrainian and I appreciate
every day more because of the war and you understand that this day it can be your final
day, it can be your last day so you live every day as it's your final day but I have a lot
of new experience, I have a lot of new friends and people around me so that's a little bit
easy for me.
Yeah, that's all.
Thank you so much Olena.
This was my privilege, my honor, such a wonderful way to know more about you and about your
life and I wish you success in your studies, I wish peace and victory for Ukraine and I
thank you again.
Thank you a lot for this experience, awesome.
