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 Emeliana Syrenko.
Emeliana is originally from Kiev, Ukraine, and now lives in Brussels in Belgium.
She studies in parallel in two schools, final grade of Ukrainian school where she mainly
studies sciences, law, mathematics, and Ukrainian language, literature, and history, and international
baccalaureate program in British School of Brussels, BSB, where she studies high-level
mathematics, computer science, economics, biology, French, English literature, and
art.
Emeliana is passionate about music.
Her grandparents were musicians as well, and they gave her their love for music.
She professionally studies music since she was five years old, mostly jazz, and now she
is writing songs, but she doesn't want to release them yet, as she is currently writing
them for herself to express her feelings and emotions.
From her early childhood, Emeliana was trying to find her kind of sport, so she tried almost
every type of sport, then stopped for a little bit when she found gymnastics.
She has done it since she was six years old for a few years, and then she opened herself
again in majorette sport, cheerleading, and she was very passionate about it.
With her team, they became champions of Ukraine and gained second place on the Championship
of Europe, where she carried the Ukrainian flag.
Her favorite sport now as well is wakeboarding and wakesurfing, where her father is very
good at it and taught her these sports in Ukraine, so she misses them very much.
She loves, as well, winter sports.
She has been skiing since she was four years old.
Emeliana loves studying languages.
She studies English and French, and now started Spanish and German.
She loves to travel, to try new things, to visit new places, to develop herself in new
ways and to explore new cultures.
When she was 13, Emeliana started modeling for a few years, and right before the war
started it again, but unfortunately the war changed all her plans, and she is grateful
now for her parents and older sister who support her with everything as she is now rebuilding
her life from scratch in a new country.
Emeliana, how are you today?
Hi.
Hello.
Thank you.
I'm really good.
I had a pretty busy day, and how are you?
I'm feeling positive.
I'm feeling lucky to be alive and very curious about you, so I'll begin with this.
Emeliana, if your friends could describe your personality, what would they say about you?
It's a difficult question, actually, because I don't really know what they really think
about me, but probably I think they would say that I'm very active and very energetic
because I'm all the time up to everything, and even if it's like 2 a.m. in the night,
someone could call me and ask me for something, I would cancel all my plans just to help someone
with something, so I could say I hope that they think that I am friendly and I'm really
trying to be very sincere with everyone.
I could say what I really know is that very often they tell me that they see me as a motivator
because I really am passionate about a lot of things, and I'm telling them some interesting
information all the time, like what I have done and what I want to do, and a lot of information
all the time because I really love to speak, and sometimes, time from time, they are telling
me like, oh, you really motivated me to do this and to do this, and just because I look
at you and I see how energetic you are and how a lot of things you do, and this really
motivates me, so I'm really glad to hear that in my address because it means a lot to me.
Thank you.
That's absolutely wonderful, and it makes me very curious about you, especially the
part about you being energetic, being passionate, being so motivated and active, and I'll ask
this, inside, what drives you?
Let's say someone at two in the morning, they have something to do and you stop everything,
you drop it all to go do it.
What motivates you to do that?
What gives you that energy?
Is it that time you think, oh my God, I don't want this day to be wasted?
I want to extract every second of joy from it, or is it that you love the energy of new
things and experiencing new emotions, and you're like, I need that, I'm addicted, but
I love it, so let's go, or what is the source of your energy and drive to be active and
to try to do it all?
Oh, that's a really good question because really, sometimes I do feel very low and lack
of energy and everything, but at that moment, I'm telling myself, we live once and we need
to use this time as effective as possible.
I remember when I was, I think I was six, and I was in a changing room with my good
friend and I had really tough times in my life at that time, and I remember her telling
me the phrase that, who cares, we live only once, we have one life, so just live this
life how you want it to be because everything depends on you, and at that moment, I felt
something moved inside me, and I understood that every moment is special, unique, and
it's very important to not just to sit and waste time, I could say it like that.
And I think I really, I scared of how time flies, and I'm scared if a few days goes,
and I feel like I did nothing very useful.
I feel really bad because I feel like I'm wasting my time, and I think it's a bad part
of me, this feeling, but it is how it is, and I'm trying to fight with it.
And also, I could say that I'm kind of addicted to having new emotions because really, I love
to be everywhere at the same time and to try new things in you and you, and I could really
call it as an addiction, and I think I'm also scared to miss something in my life, yeah,
and when my friends really call me and tell me that they have something to do and maybe
they have some problems and maybe they need something from me or something like this,
whatever, I really love people, and I really love to help them, and I really love the feeling
of being useful in this life to whoever it is and whatever I do.
That can relate very much, but I'll play the devil's advocate a little bit.
Usually there is an idea that if a person like you wants to and tries to be everywhere
at once to try everything because most people cannot keep up, you'll be meeting different
people, often new people, and therefore it's often about new relationships that are not
so deep rather than those relationships that are deep where they do everything with you.
You know what I mean?
If you go to a new gymnastics class, you'll be meeting new people there.
If you go to skiing, it'll be new people.
If you go to study Spanish, new people everywhere all the time, which means some people will
criticize that as saying, oh, that's a shallow kind of relationship and life.
What's your opinion on this?
Is this something you experience or are you meeting those wonderful people who go with
you on adventures as teammates and therefore you're getting that depth of relationship
through varied experiences?
For a long time, I could say I was alone in my life as I could call it, so that's what
you told.
I could call them not friends, but people who I know and people who know me, and sometimes
we could hang out together, but I haven't got real friends with who I would be all the
time together because my early years were kind of difficult, I could say, because I
had gone through a lot of bullying and not very good situations to me with relationships
with people because I could say now analyzing that situation when I'm a bit older, I could
tell that I was too kind to people and I trusted them so much and it turned the bad side to
me.
So really for a long time, I haven't got that real friends I could say that are with
me all the time and that we are together all the time and I could even call myself I think
like an introvert in some way, but I do have plenty, like dozens of people who I know who
know me and friends and now I do have the real close people.
Thank you.
If I understood you correctly, you had a difficult childhood where you have been bullied, you
had difficult relationships, you were alone for most of your life, but now as you evolve
and learn from those traumas and use them to grow, you learn to find your people, those
who know you and love you for who you are so that you're not alone and therefore to
ask you now with who you are and the level of understanding you have that of life that
is deeper, what kind of people are you more interested and excited to be around?
Is it people that you can feel useful to which you said is a feeling you love or is it the
people with that spark in their eyes that are passionate to who are calling you for
new adventures and new emotions and they're living life on the edge?
Because usually they're not really the same people always, there are people who are creating
their adventure and you're joining them and there are people who you are creating the
adventure and being useful to them by helping them and giving your abilities and help to
them.
Which kind are you more attracted to or interested in?
Well, in general, I believe that people come and go in your life and every person is, I
could say is a lesson and everyone teaches you something, some things that will be useful
from that moment to your life.
But answering the questions like which type of person are, I could say mine, person, it
really depends because I would love to be friends and to talk to people who really motivates
me like who are better than me at something and when I see the things that they are doing,
maybe they could teach me something, maybe they are motivating me to do something and
I think everyone are unique in their own way and every person could teach me something
and I could learn from it.
Even if the person is maybe mostly of the time sitting at home and playing video games
or something like this, I still could find some interesting parts in it and I could maybe
this will balance me, my activeness because life is about balance.
So yeah, I could say I love every type of person but mostly I'm trying to find something
that will teach me from this person and I'm trying to find the best parts of every person
that I met to I think to challenge myself, to motivate myself, to learn from it somehow.
Thank you.
That's wonderful.
I feel and believe you're someone who is very curious and I have some questions about
that but first I'll begin with you said that you prefer or you would like to be around
people who are better than you so that you can learn from them.
A lot of people, especially when they're younger, when they're teenagers get intimidated if
they feel someone is smarter or more experienced or more knowledgeable than them and actually
it makes them feel like avoiding that person because they feel like an imposter syndrome
or something like that.
Do you have such feelings and you overcome them or you're so excited and curious about
learning from them that you don't have such thoughts and what's your opinion about this
whole topic of self-esteem as a teenager and self-love and confidence?
That's a very good question because I couldn't tell that I am very self-confident because
as I told previously for a long time in my life I was very unconfident if I could say
it like that in myself and I'm insecure about a lot of things in myself but I'm just trying
to not to tell it to people and maybe they won't notice that type of thing.
Do I get jealous of something in someone and do I feel intimidated by being not as good
as someone in some parts?
I couldn't say it like this and I probably am not that type of person.
It's just because I know that someone is better now but maybe if I will work on myself
more I could be the same level or even better.
I think life is about gaining experience and reaching to some levels so maybe now this
person is just at level 120 and I'm just at the level 101 and maybe I just need more time
but looking at such people and such things in them I could say I know where I want to
go.
I'm finding my goals and when I see that someone is very good at something I see where
I want to go with it and I could build my path to reach that goal.
I don't know, I really love how everyone are unique and maybe I'm good at music and
at singing and someone is much better at dancing or at learning history probably.
Thank you.
I love your attitude.
It's very constructive and positive but we cannot end without speaking about something
negative which is the war, the invasion.
How was February 24th for you?
How did you hear about the war?
How did you know it started?
Did you believe it, not believe it?
And tell me the story of your life, what happened since then and how did you change as a personality?
Yeah, February 24th is I think one of the worst days of my life probably as in the life
of every Ukrainian.
I could say that a few weeks before the war I heard a lot of things, people were talking,
a lot of rumors were spreading like the war is going to be and probably is going to be
and it's going to happen but I was listening to it and I was like, wow, what are you talking
about?
No, it couldn't happen, now it's the 21st century and I think people could find better
ways to deal with something, to deal with their ambitions and I think lack of power,
we could call it like that but very unfortunately and very actually unexpectedly for me it happened
so it was very scary and the war really changed me in a lot of ways and I think I appreciate
it and I'm really grateful for the way the things happened, for everything even if it's
bad and hurtful.
So on February 24th I was sleeping in my bed and everything was really good, I had a photo
shoot just the day before and I really liked my life at that point and the week before
the war I remembered the moment I was driving in a car and I was sitting and thinking like
I really love my life now at this point and I think I worked a lot for like to have this
life and I really appreciate everything around me and you know one week and just everything
is ruined in one second.
So I was sleeping and everything was good but then I heard a real loud sound and I woke
up just trembling because I didn't know what was it but you know it was 5 a.m. I was very
sleepy and I thought that someone is just like throwing metal bricks around the house
you know and I lived on 29th floor so the sound was very loud so I heard it like a lot
because all my flat is it was like you know glass around it like a lot of windows so I
could hear the sounds very good and I decided just to sleep again you know and once again
like few minutes and I hear the same sound but much louder at that point I felt like
something is something is wrong like something is happening and I came to my sister's room
I decided to stay to sleep with her because I feel safe with her but one minute and her
best friend is calling her and telling her like just stay calm don't worry everything
is fine but the war began and we were like I couldn't even explain this feeling in the
words it was shocking and I think only if you are in this situation you would understand
but like I think it's impossible to describe it in words because such feeling and I didn't
know that it would be so bad if I could say like that because I thought it's like for
one week maybe or two weeks and we will go to our country house we will sit there for
a few weeks and everything will come down and I will continue my life on again but unfortunately
no and I remember calling my mom and telling like so do you know the war began and she
was like yeah but I was I would decided not to call you to not to disturb you because
you know this few minutes wouldn't change anything so and I have a small sister she's
disabled I don't really talk about it a lot but yeah and it's very difficult it was very
difficult for our family to leave Ukraine and for I think for 15 days maybe more maybe
less but I was so shocked and so stressed at that moment that I don't remember counting
days but we were sitting in our friend's country house underground and but before this why
we decided to go there you know like I'm telling now is very mixed up so I'm telling like telling
like what's happened on 24th what's happened like two weeks after and then I'm telling
like what's happened one week earlier it's just because all the memories in my head they
are so mixed up I could tell that it's hard to you know build a timeline before we came
to our friend's house we decided of course to come to our house it was the scariest moment
of my life when I really understood that the life that the war happened is when I remember
sitting on the kitchen and just look into the window for our country house and I just
see how the bomb or I don't know missile I think I don't know how it really called
and what it was but it's just falling in our garden and everything was just trembling and
even some windows I think they were like broken because the wave of energy was so strong and
on that particular moment I really realized that the war is here that it is happening
because even till that moment I was I was thinking like oh yeah war maybe what what
is it like we will just sit here and everything's gonna be fine and but you know at that moment
we understood that we can't stay in that in that house because if this missile would
come a few meters to the right we would be dead by that moment so yeah it's hard to tell
about it but yeah and we packed our stuff again and we came to our friend's house where
they have really good underground shelter so we were staying there for I don't know
maybe 15 days maybe less maybe more and when the things like became much harder and we
understood that it's not life there because we were like living underground basically
and we were going up just to cook something to take food and we were like going back down
we decided that it's like it's not alive and my parents they really they didn't want to
leave the country because they they have their life there and I understand that how it's
how it is difficult because like for me I'm sick I'm only 16 but for me it's it is difficult
but I can't imagine for the people who lived like for 50 years there how it is to have
just just to cross all their lives and that's that's crazy and I think every Ukrainian is
now in in such situation and I really I hope it's gonna end soon but no one knows and so
the hardest thing I think even after that the hardest thing was to leave Ukraine because
we were leaving it just at the hottest point I think of the war when everyone were just
like leaving so a lot of cars traffic jams and everything was so I don't I can't even
explain it but I remember we were driving and I see the suited cars on the road and
like some war techniques just driving through so I can't even like I don't really remember
the road but I remember it was very long because Ukraine is big and driving from the Ukraine
to the border took us five days and I remember I remember sleeping on the floor in the field
in some house I don't really I don't know which house was it and how we get there I
really don't remember it but it was the moment that I really remember I was just sleeping
on the floor with some people around me it was my family but you know it was yeah and
I do remember actually how well it was very stressful and bad but as I am trying to stay
positive even it as the most horrible situations in my life I'm trying to stay positive positive
so I do remember a lot of fun moments from that because we were also with our friends
and you know we were trying to make some jokes and do some fun stuff of course it was very
hard and everyone was stressed but we're trying to we were trying to like a bit calm down
yeah and at that moment I also understood that life is so we need to appreciate every
second of our life because just in one second it could change totally in different direction
yeah so I don't even like know what to tell more but it was very difficult and it is and
it is difficult till now I think emotionally for me well I'm trying to build up from scratch
my life here I think I'm doing great for now but still I think my emotional my mental
state is not at the best point now I could tell as I think every every Ukrainian people
but I do really hope that it will end soon and I could come back home and feel my my
life is feel my life good like as it was thank you yes I can feel how difficult that was
for you and all I can say is Slava Ukraini heroine Slava thank you Emiliana for sharing
about your life your emotions your unique personality thank you for participating I
wish you success and rebuilding your life from scratch I wish peace and victory for
Ukraine and your ability to return home and thank you again please take care of yourself
thank you very much for inviting me here today and for the opportunity to participate in
such interesting projects and I'm really glad to be here today
