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 Irina Elena Bulat.
Irina is a volunteer at Red Cross from Ramnicovalje in Romania and she is involved in a lot of
activities to support her community.
Irina is finishing mathematics and computer sciences at her school and plans to study
medicine after graduation because her passion is biology and chemistry and she loves to
help people around her.
Irina loves singing a lot, she attended the school choir, she enjoys listening to music,
she learned by her own some piano songs and took dance classes in her youth.
Her favorite sport is skiing, she has been practicing this sport for almost 10 years
and she also likes playing volleyball because she trained in that when she was 14 years
old.
Irina loves traveling, she joined two Erasmus projects, one in the Netherlands and the other
in a small town in Romania.
Irina enjoys cycling, watching films in the genres of romance, drama, adventure, and thriller,
playing cards, watching Formula One, and spending time with her friends and family.
Irina, how are you today?
Hello, I'm really happy to join this podcast and I was excited all the week for this moment.
Thank you, it's my honor, my privilege to interview you and I'm very curious about you
so I'll begin with this.
If your friends and the people who know you could describe your personality, what would
they say about you?
Well, I think that they would say I am a really creative person, I am really tolerant, I like
to help all of them and to be part of my friends' lives and to support them in all of the things
they are doing.
I'm also really friendly and really extrovert, I like communication and also new opportunities.
I love that so much, I have so many questions.
But I'll begin with communications and new opportunities.
What is fascinating for you about communications and new opportunities?
Is it because you love new emotions, you get bored easily, you want to try something new?
Or is it for self-development when you speak to people, you learn from them, you discover
new aspects to your personality and opportunities show you who you are in new situations?
Or is it just fun and you like that development and experience of always going forward like
an adventure in life?
Well, I believe that is a really combination of the two of them because I find self-development
really important but also the fun that comes with it because through communication you
get to know other people better, you get to learn their life stories, you get to know
their personality and maybe while you are taking part in new opportunities you can learn
new things and this is the most precious thing for your self-development.
That's great and I'm curious about your experience with Red Cross.
What's the story or the moment that you decided to volunteer to join?
Is it motivated by your love for medicine and help in the world or did you have a family
member who was there or how did this involvement begin and what was the reason that started
it?
Well, I started to be a volunteer in Red Cross I can say one year ago and yes it is correct
my love for medicine determined me to take part in the Red Cross.
I started to follow them on social media so I can follow their posts and see what new
and wonderful activities they do and I was really in love with all the community activities
they were doing because they helped a lot of families and poor children and also people
from our community and I thought that it will be really important for me to learn first
aid before I entered the medical school and at the moment I began being a volunteer there
I didn't have really many friends there most of the people were new to me but this was
a chance to make a lot of friends and now we are really good friends and we talk we
went to a lot of activities together and camps in summer and I think that it was a huge part
of my self-development this year being a volunteer and about family well my cousin was a volunteer
about four years ago and she told me that it was a great experience and that she would
see me being also part of the whole action.
Thank you I like that and it seems to me that people are a very important part of your life
so I will ask you what draws you to people what is the reason why you love helping people
communicating with them are people to you just wonderful creatures that you're curious
about and you wish to them all the good in the world or do you love feeling useful and
feeling like you're bonding and connecting with other people or is it about the energy
that when you exchange with them energy you feel alive and more enthusiastic and inspired
or how do you experience people and what do you love about that experience of humanity
well I believe that putting a smile on someone's face makes also you very happy and I think
this is the main idea I'm living about and I find helping other people also helping yourself
and most of the time I'm thinking what if I was that person what would I need what would
I'd like to receive from other people so I think that in order to live a greater life
and a better life and a wonderful life we have to all be happy to all be friends and
to make ourselves live in a better place together because alone we can do little but together
we can definitely do more I agree 100% and I wonder how was your experience
with the Netherlands what did you notice about the culture and the differences between people
in Romania or in your city or town that seems to be culturally different to Dutch people
was there a culture shock what did you observe well this is a really wonderful memory to
me I went there in the seventh grade I was about 13 years old and it was my first time
in the Netherlands and I can say that I was really impressed by all the things I saw there
and all the people I met first of all the huge difference is that they feel freedom
more than we do it they put more accent on sports and self-development and not only on
being the best in school they also ride their bicycles every day to school and not on not
only by car as we most of us do in Romania and I really think about that experience almost
every time and I will repeat it instantly the culture is wonderful the people are wonderful
you get to learn things every day there and I think that these kind of exchange projects
are the ones that really matter because you get to know all of the wonderful things in
this world and not only what's next to you I like this and I like how you express yourself
and you communicate did you have like interest in poetry or in writing or in public speaking
or are you someone who just feels how you feel your emotions and experience deeply and
you know how to express that well I'm also interested in poetry I sometimes write poems
and most of them are about love but I like to write I can say intelligent poems that
make you wonder and make you feel some stories and think about memories I also took part
in some public speaking events because Red Cross isn't the only place I volunteered I
also was a volunteer in Europe Direct which is something that is known in the whole Europe
and there we had a lot of activities of public speaking and I can say I improved my skills
in this area while being a volunteer there and it helped me have the courage to speak
my mind and tell people what I truly think thank you and since you love medicine and
you would love to study it what is the ideal university you would love to go to and are
you a girl who loves to live in smaller towns where almost everybody knows everybody and
you love that sense of small community or you prefer huge cities where you're always
meeting new people surrounded by millions of humans well at the moment I live in a small
city where almost everybody knows everybody but in the future I would like to study in
a bigger city I have a city in Romania in my mind it is Cluj-Napoca and I would like
to study medicine there because it is both a beautiful city and a university city where
there are people from all around the world because there aren't only Romanian students
but also students foreign students from other countries and I would like to experience life
in a bigger city maybe where you can be more active do more things in a day have more places
you can go to and new projects new opportunities I think that a bigger city comes with them
and you can develop yourself more in a bigger city than just staying and living your whole
life in a small city but I can say that living and having my childhood in a small city helped
me being relaxed and enjoy life more I like that and I'm wondering since you're so active
involved in so many things how do you relax how do you keep yourself from burning out
what is your process or what do you do in order to forget all troubles rebalance and
not burn out well I can say that one of the most important medicine is music I love listening
to music I love singing and besides that I love watching movies and I think that a way
of keeping you really alive is spending time with your friends and family and spending
a lot of time outside in nature seeing new places traveling to new places I almost every
weekend go out somewhere for a few hours and charging my batteries I love hikes I love
cycling I love going to new places and I think that the combination of all of them helped
me be relaxed and be ready for the things that the new things that are going to be going
to take place in the week that is coming thank you and to understand you even more what other
parts of yourself would you love to develop I know you love opportunities you love to
have a great life what are some things in your life or skills or abilities or new opportunities
you would love to have that will take you to the next level well a part of myself that
has been improved during the years is the sport I am practicing it is skiing it's not
I cannot say it is a regular sport because not all of the people are practicing this
sport and it is also a winter sport not the whole sport you can play the whole year but
taking into consideration that I have been going to on the slopes and the mountains since
I was a child made me feel more experienced during the years and right now I can say that
I'm really proud of myself and this sport is a combination of being relaxed feeling
free on the slopes taking breaths of fresh air meeting new people with the same passion
is yours and I can say that the feeling of going in the winter in new places is really
amazing and it is a sport I want to practice my whole life and I think it will be a thing
that keeps you alive it really keeps you alive talking about sports another one that I practiced
is volleyball I trained for one year but I continued playing this sport after and I can
say that this sport being a team sport helps you cooperate and develops your teamwork and
this is why I encourage all of the people who are listening to us right now to practice
a sport and to find a lot of activities to do so that they can keep them active and outgoing
and just not to be bored to always be happy that you're doing something thank you and
that makes me ask are you culturally or in your personality similar to most of the girls
in your small city in Ramnikovalje are they also into sports is it a big sports culture
is it a big volunteer culture are people there active doing a lot of things and always desiring
more opportunities or are you different in some way and people there are more chilled
more about relaxing and not being so motivated to push themselves outside of the comfort
zone as much well the people in my city are both active and chill I know girls and not
only girls but a lot of people my age teenagers that practice a sport I can say that not so
many of them practice skiing they prefer football volleyball basketball sports so that you can
practice in your city and that do not need you to go to another place we have a lot of
ONG where you can volunteer but the ones that I chose or I can choose them only for fun
but so I can learn something new or develop the things that I already know but yes I know
a lot of people that a lot of teenagers that are active and that like getting out of their
comfort zone most of my friends have beautiful passions and I really like to be to have people
around me that are motivated so I can learn things from them so I can develop myself by
being around them and I think that it is really people it is really important to choose the
right people around you so they that you can support each other because if you have small
minded people around you then you tend to be like them and this isn't the point the point
is to always be in a in a development in a self-development and to always want you to
do better and better and to have goals that you want to achieve because life is just wonderful
if you have memories and if you have things you work for so that one day you can be proud
of yourself and yeah I think this is the main point I agree 100% I love how you said that
and to ask you too about social skills and awkwardness after the pandemic a lot of teenagers
your age had years of their adolescence spent maybe in isolation or not in contact with
so many friends or studying online do you feel it made people less able to have conversations
where they connect well maybe they became more shy or awkward or because your city is
smaller or in Romania the restrictions did not last as long as other places you don't
believe it was a big impact well I believe it was definitely a big impact because the
communication was really lower than it should have been I was in high school when the pandemic
started and this was really sad because it was a period of time where I should have every
day go out with my colleagues and make memories with each other and feel happy of our age
and of our opportunities and this our wings were a little bit of cut at that moment because
we had to stay only at home and to work only on our laptop and this affected a big part
of the teenagers nowadays but it also made us appreciate more what we have and what we
could do we appreciate more traveling right now we appreciate more seeing each other every
day we appreciate more a party a new project than Erasmus all the things that maybe a few
years ago were normal today they are not only normal and they're like pleasant and I think
we appreciate them more so yeah the pandemic came with both good parts and bad parts but
it is I don't know maybe difficult to see the good parts when you think of that period
because at that time you were just scared and you wanted only to be safe and your family
to be healthy and all the other things weren't as important as they might be now I understand
and I know how difficult it was especially for you who doesn't like to be bored and
loves to communicate and connect with other people and to ask you about boredom are you
a girl who gets bored fast and easily and if so how do you do about studies where sometimes
you have a lot of memorization a lot of exercises maybe in biology or in medicine in the future
or even in math that it's not so much of an adventure or do you think about it in a way
that makes it exciting what I mean is how do you deal with studying homework and the
educational system which might not be as much of a thriller or adventure as formula one
etc but you still have to do those things in order to progress and learn I want to start
with the thing that since I was a child I liked studying and taking part into contests
I know that it is a big and important part of my life to study and it defines my future
and this motivates me and I feel that first of all I'm studying and doing what I like
and second of all this provides me a wonderful future that I want to have I think I also
like to be very good in what I'm doing and to attempt to be the best when I was younger
I was working out of problems and exercises in mathematics and I went to a lot of contests
I also managed to have a wonderful experience and participate to the national mathematics
olympiad olympics when I was in the fifth grade and then last year in high school I
went to the national olympics of biology and these contests these extra things because
they weren't compulsory it was my I wanted to go there I chose to work for them and they
made me proud of myself and they also made me want to learn more and more work more and
more and be a very very very great and good person in what I'm doing and this this motivates
me because I know that it will be good for me to do them and that it will help me and
it will make my future self proud so in the beginning you asked me about boredom and yes
as every people around ourselves every person we sometimes feel bored but we need to find
our motivation and our reason to move on and go on and always continue doing what we like
and what we are dreaming for I agree and I love that very much life is too precious not
to progress not to develop and to try new things and to understand you as a person how
do you know if a new person you meet is your type of person is it the fire in their eyes
and passion because they're doing some great work that makes you think yes this energy
is for me or is it if they speak and they have similar loves and values to you you think
yes we are in agreement we're the right people or is it they because they're friends with
friends you know that there will be a good connection or how do you know someone new
is your type of person as well as is it something like what traits or characteristics would
they have well I believe that the most important thing is the vibe and the energy once you
talk to that person for a few hours I think that you get to know a bit of their character
and of their sense of humor their personality and you can see if they have a match if you
need to have a match most of the time I just feel a good vibe and say yes you are the kind
of person I want to have by my side yes I love to talk to you yes I love what you're
telling me of course having the same passions or the same dreams or goals can connect people
but I think that you just need to feel comfortable and free by their side it's just about the
vibe and the energy and yes you said a wonderful thing about the fire in their eyes I think
that the eyes talk more than and say more than words can so yeah eyes are really important
and we know that we can grow older and our appearance can change but our eyes will never
change thank you so in many ways what attracts you to people is it because you mentioned
before that your friends have a great and unique sense of fashion etc so how is that
related are you more in love with the souls and fire in the eyes of people and let's say
they dress very normal or bad or some people don't have that fire in their eyes but their
fashion is so amazing and unique what is more interesting for you well fashion is a personal
thing it is about what you like and what you prefer oh it's not the main point in a connection
but the most important thing is the vibe they're fire in their eyes the energy if you like
talking to them if you like spending time with them if you feel relaxed by their side
if you feel that you can talk anything to them if you could if you can put faith in
them and a lot of things like this because character and personality is more important
than appearance and we should firstly get to know better a person and then judge them
because maybe a wonderful heart is there and we just don't get to know it because of the
stereotypes thank you so much Irina this was an episode and a message full of hope full
of humanity full of connection I wish you success I wish you all the wonderful experiences
you desire I wish more growth and volunteers at Red Cross and for you to become the best
medical practitioner you can be thank you again for participating in this project and
I wish you a wonderful day thank you very much it was a great opportunity you have a
great personality I can say and you chose to say wonderful words and I'm really happy
I took part in it and thank you for your idea and for your interview and I hope that all
your podcasts will help people live in a better world thank you too
