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 Iwana Theodora Dobre.
Teo lives in Pitești, Romania, studying social sciences in the top high school of her town.
Teo is crazy about volunteering, teamwork, and working with kids.
These are things she really loves to do.
She also knows how to play the guitar and she was part of a dance team for nine years.
In the past two years, Teo participated in a lot of charity projects in her city and
also in ecology and mountain sports activities.
In the summer of 2022, she spent one month volunteering for an English language camp
where she worked with hundreds of kids and people from all over the world.
This experience changed her perspective about life and its beauties, but these activities
are only possible for her because a few years ago she started to learn English after a long
period of time where it was her worst nightmare.
Teo plans to keep developing her English language skills as well as begin to learn the French
language too.
After high school, she plans to attend the Foreign Languages University in Romania or
abroad because she would really enjoy traveling all over the world.
Teo, how are you today?
Hi, I'm good.
I spent some quality time with my friends outside and now I'm enjoying this interview
with you.
I'm honored, I'm lucky, I'm happy and I'm very curious about you since you are with
your friends.
I'll begin with this nice question.
If your friends could describe your personality, what would they say about you?
I think they would say that I'm very sociable and that I'm smiling all the time even if
something goes wrong.
I'm always smiling because I like to enjoy the little things about life and I think we
should spend more time enjoying life and not worry so much.
I have so many questions about that and I'll begin with this.
Did you have periods in your life where you didn't have time or the focus to enjoy the
things in life and then you learned something that helped you develop this ability to be
happy and enjoy the moment or how did you develop that?
Why did you understand it's important?
Do you feel that in the Romanian society people enjoy life or they should add more enjoyment
similar to you?
Okay, first of all, I think the pandemic changed me a lot because I was in eighth grade, the
final grade for school in Romania and I entered in the second trimester online in online classes
and I was so mad.
I even had depression that time because I missed my colleagues and I missed the atmosphere
there and after that period of time I began to enjoy and think.
If I spend more time with people I like, doing things that I like, I will not have regrets
after that like I had before because I didn't spend so much time enjoying school so yeah.
Thank you so much.
Yes, a lot of teenagers had the unfortunate situation of spending two or three years in
a really different and restrictive environment because of the pandemic.
I don't think it's good for their social life or development but I hope they can now like
you appreciate the moment and spend more time with people and in the things that matter
and to ask you more.
You said you're sociable, you miss your friends, I understand you love people.
So how is that love for people?
What is important and interesting about people for you?
Is it sharing the moment and the energy together?
Is it their stories and learning from their mistakes and their successes?
Is it just the warmth and the kindness shared together?
Is it people feel to you like a connection to nature and to the universe or what makes
people so important for you?
For sure every people, every single person has some stories behind him and I found this
very interesting because all of us are different so I really like to know the persons I spend
my time with because after all this time we'll make memories and friendships and so on.
I think that their energy and their maybe passions brings us together because when you
have something in common with someone you can have a lot of fun together, you can spend
and create experiences that you never thought about.
Also I can say that opposite attracts so I met some people in my life we thought we are
opposite from every single point but after we talked we found each other a good presence
in our lives so I don't know every single little detail about someone can make you feel
closer to that person so yeah I really like to spend my time with people because after
all we are a society and we should, actually I don't think we can't live alone.
Thank you I agree with you 100% and when you meet new people you said you are smiling you
are open so have you ever had those experiences of meeting someone, feeling an instant chemistry
where you feel like you know this person all your life like you are comfortable with this
person always or do you need a bit of time and conversation to warm up and open up to
new people before you become friends?
This summer I met some people and we didn't have so much time to spend together I'm talking
about the camp I was in so I met people and for the first second we were like oh my god
I feel like I know you forever like it can happen like this but with not so many people
and I think that spark that thing it can be with anyone female male friends or lovers
anything but I think it's once in a lifetime experience to feel that I felt that with very
very not many people so it's like that sometimes but after you talk with someone you see their
perceptions of life of things you can know more about them and feel closer or not with
them after you talk with them so it depends.
That's really really interesting and since you're someone who loves people who feels
their humanity what's your perspective on life?
Do you feel that people are there around us to teach us lessons that help us develop?
Do you feel there is part of destiny and those rare meetings with people are kind of a soul-mate
situation that are meant to be or is everything chaotic and random or what's your approach
to the world and how you view life with others and this world we live in?
So from my point of view nothing is random because when you have a situation or you met
a person or things like that I think it has a it shouldn't be like that it should be like
that of course you can change it you can do whatever you want to do or you think you should
do but I think this is also something that makes part of our path because I don't think
okay I met someone and she or he gave me a lesson I think that lesson was meant to be
like that maybe if a person entered your life and then is not anymore in your life I think
that was how it's supposed to be.
So I don't think life is random I think we all have our destiny of course we can change
it when we want to but after all we should do I don't know we should enjoy it and make
it to as good as we want to.
I agree one hundred percent and one of your goals is to study in a foreign languages university
let's not discuss the one in Romania I know you imagine learning French which university
would be your dream university to go study in it different languages will it be English
and French would it be in Paris studying the French language or what would be your dream
come true university experience outside of Romania?
I want to learn French but I really want to learn Arabic or not such a common language
but I want to go in Europe I'm not sure if France is the one country I want to study
in but I think I want to spend some time there to develop my French language because being
in a native country you can learn more so my dream would be to do a internship in France
in the university and meet new people have new experiences and so on.
Thank you.
You mentioned you wish to learn a language that is not so common are you someone who
likes to be unique it's a driver in your life to do things that make you feel not mainstream
not common someone special and appreciated for your individuality tell me more about
that such a choice of not going for a common or obvious choice in languages or in life.
I'm gonna say that I want to challenge myself because it's not easy to learn three languages
of course I have I have the opportunity to learn these languages but the third language
to learn is a bit hard because like I said I want to learn Arabic so it has nothing in
common with English or French and I like to challenge myself not in special to be unique
but for my development and my my own experience I want to help myself and to learn it and
to make new opportunities and new memories with this language as well as I did with English
as I do for example right now because it's not such a common thing to do a podcast in
English for me so I think this is it.
Thank you.
Do you feel that most of the teenagers in PTHT are challenging themselves is it a common
attitude or you and the people in your top high school have such an attitude more than
normal and therefore why do you have it if most normal teenagers may or may not have
it?
I think it depends because some of the teenagers I know are so hard working and they want to
do like let's learn let's go to medicine school let's go to learn foreign languages or let's
be a lawyer so we have to work but I met some people who are like okay it is what it is
I don't want to put so much effort for nothing so there are two two parts but the most people
in our generation I think are are decided about the future because they know we we should
do something to change it because Romania is not such a developed place we have some
perceptions about you shouldn't be like that you you can do that but no after all we we
should evolve and I think a big part of teenagers and of my colleagues really want to do something
with their lives and to learn and to challenge themselves so it's about choices after all.
Wonderful and if you could describe what is the culture of Romanian teenage girl in 2022
you said you know Romania is developing the culture is opening up are you mostly Romanian
in your way of thinking and attitude or are you a mix of American because of Hollywood
a bit of British because of the culture and the series a bit Korean because of kpop Japanese
because of anime and all that stuff mixed all together can you describe it if someone
especially you has been to the English camp and you met people from all over the world
how would you say you as a Romanian teenager is similar or different to their culture and
their ways of being okay so for our teenager years I think in Romania we are set to do
the same thing like go to high school go to university then do do make a job and a family
and this is the this is the way you should do it like this is the perception but I think
we are I don't know how to say it but I think we want to do something different most of
us because of course that this way to do certain things to follow the same path can can be
like okay this is what I'm gonna do it's sure this is gonna work but abroad some people
like in America I think they do like okay let's do something different like let's do
something unexpected so they they might be happier because they're not following the
same the same path all of them so I think of course making a new meeting new people
and seeing how their culture is can change our perspectives in Romania I think teenage
girls are like are trying to escape that that path that same thing you do.
