Episode Transcript
Hello, my name is Aziz and I'm the son of a divorced mother.
She is my superhero.
That's why it's important for me to support women to share their uniqueness, their personalities,
perspectives, and emotions about this world.
In these difficult times in human history, we need to bring the cultures of the world
together.
And when we listen to real people, to real lives of women from other countries, we connect
our humanity without our differences or stereotypes, and we get inspired by their stories to live
a better life.
That's what this podcast is all about.
My guest today is Angelica Yefimova.
Angelica is a young European ambassador and a youth volunteer of the United Nations.
Originally from Kherson, Ukraine, she is currently living in Quebec, Canada.
Angelica is studying to obtain a master's degree in Odessa Law Academy, and she took
part in various programs provided by the Kiev Mohyla Academy in Kiev, Ukraine, the Central
European University, Hungary, and Austria, and the Pontian Assas Université Paris II
in Paris, France, before the full-scale invasion.
Angelica was an in-house lawyer for a group of agricultural enterprises, an assistant
to the deputy of local authorities, a deputy of youth council in Kherson, and an intern
in different law firms.
Now she is an intern at a worldwide law firm and a youth volunteer of the United Nations.
Angelica went out of the occupation by herself without her family when she was 21, and now
she is a temporary resident in Canada, being alone, starting her new life from scratch
by herself.
Angelica loves foreign languages, as now she is learning French and a bit of German and
Turkish.
She is interested in IT development.
She enjoys sports, gym, and stretching in particular, gaining new knowledge and skills
in the area of jurisprudence, especially in the area of IT and different kinds of information,
and learning more about psychology and neuroscience.
Angelica, how are you today?
Hello, Aziz.
Firstly, I want to say thank you for the invitation, and I'm fine, thank you.
What about you?
I'm feeling lucky to be alive, grateful to live every day and to have this opportunity
to learn more about you and to share your voice, your soul, your life with the world.
Then I'll begin with this nice question, which I like.
If your friends, the people that know you best, could describe your personality, what
would they say about you?
They would say that I'm purposeful, ambitious, and hardworking person.
I love that, and I'm very curious to know because we live in a time of distraction.
Some people don't even believe that they could accomplish much in the future, so they're
living more of a zombie life, and it's great.
Part of this project is to inspire them as well.
So what beliefs or what happened in your life that gave you this drive and motivation and
made you believe that your own ambitions can be created in this world?
Sometimes I have thoughts that my future is not good and I don't have skills and knowledge
to make my life comfortable, but then I think, okay, my future will not be good as I think,
but I want to try anyway, why not?
So it gives me some drives and some courage to go ahead and to try new and new areas of
life.
I love that.
That reminds me of the common psychological phenomena of imposter syndrome, where most
people achieve things, but they don't believe they have the skills or the abilities to do
it and they feel some kind of shyness that they will get discovered, that they're not
as amazing as people think, but it's so common and I love it too.
There is like a theological debate about destiny and whether we can choose our future or it's
already written, and the conclusion is, well, we don't know, but if you live as if you control
your future and destiny, you don't lose because if it's already written, you didn't lose
anything, and if you had choice and control, then you can find out what is possible and
I love that you think this way and to ask you, how do you get these reflections?
Are you someone who reads a lot and it comes from your love for psychology and maybe books
or courses or online like YouTube videos, or are you someone who journals a lot, who writes
about your thoughts and tries to understand yourself or maybe you take walks in nature
just to think about your life, or how does that process work for you?
Really interesting question, frankly speaking, it is a mix of mentioned things.
For example, I like, I adore reading books, but books don't give me experience, therefore
I like talking to people to know their stories and to understand how they behave for themselves
in different situations, and I like to understand how I behave myself in different situations,
especially stressful ones, and I can say that experience and life bring me lots of knowledge
and skills.
Beyond that, I like passing some courses, for example, now I'm learning course about
our brain, about our behavior within Yale University, and it's good enough for me right
now.
I love that, and it seems to me that people are an important factor in your life.
So to you, what is the most fascinating thing about other people?
Are you constantly looking to listen and learn about their biggest problems, the moments
where they almost failed, but they did behave under stress in a way that they succeeded?
Or is it more energetic that some people do you feel so comfortable with them, like you
know them all your life, and therefore you open yourself to learn from those people?
Or is it that they're from a totally different background and culture and you're like, wow,
they do things in a way that is totally foreign and different to my culture?
Or it's just the way they laugh and talk and are alive, like miracles, and you love that?
Or what is interesting, fascinating, and truly wonderful for you about other people?
It depends on different factors, it depends on my mood on a person, and depends on the
topic of our conversation.
Most of the time, I just want to know how a person thinks, why he or she thinks so,
which beliefs she or he has, and so on.
Then I can understand myself through these conversations.
Thank you.
That's such a wonderful way, and it helps as a lawyer a lot.
And to ask you even more, you're now in Quebec, which is a very unique culture and group of
people and part of Canada.
Did you have a culture shock compared to Ukraine?
Did you adapt easily?
Did you find people there to be easy to make friendships with, or are they more close because
often it's even colder than Ukraine, I think?
Tell me your experience moving from Ukraine to Montreal.
Honestly, it's much colder than in Ukraine, and I'm excited about winter.
And now I'm not in Montreal.
I'm in Quebec City.
I noticed lots of differences between Ukrainian people and people here, but it does not make
sense for me because they're easy to talk and they're easy to connect.
So I'm glad that I know such people.
When I was under occupation, I decided not to stay in Houston because I did not see any
life there, especially with the Russian army.
So I decided to apply for a visa to Canada, and therefore I left the occupation for visa
to Canada, and I'm here.
I don't know what to say and how to explain my thoughts about immigration.
As a result, I'm glad that I'm here.
Of course, now I have a really hard period of my time, but life is not easy.
I understand and I really wish you peace of mind, success, and stability.
And I'm really curious about this.
A lot of Eastern European girls notice that when they go to other parts of the world,
they seem to have a very serious face, like a poker face, where other people would think,
oh my God, that girl looks so intimidating and angry, even if you are friendly or whatever.
Did you have such experience?
Did you encounter it?
Tell me more.
Yes, yes.
A lot of Ukrainian people have a poker face, and I have it too, but in Europe and here,
I don't have a poker face, I always, if I can say so, smile, because my parents gave
me advice to smile, not to have a poker face on my face.
Having a poker face can be an obstacle for connecting to people.
I love that.
And I love that you're mentioning connecting with people.
Can you share what you have learned about talking with people in a new city and a new
country about connecting, making friends?
Because maybe some listeners, whether some Ukrainian girls or people who need to go to
a new country, start a life in a new university, in a new city, what did you find is a good
way to connect with people and make new friends?
What's your method and idea?
In accordance with the latest scientific research, a good group for you is a group of people
who have approximately the same aim as you.
For example, I want to be a volunteer for something, therefore, a good group for me
will be a group with people who have such aim, to help people or to help countries,
to help.
Now I'm focusing not on connection with people a lot, I'm focused on immigration, bureaucracy
and different things concerning my studies.
So I cannot give advice how to speak with people and how to make friends with them.
But in accordance with the scientific research, as I have mentioned, you must know your hobbies,
your interests, and therefore, these will help you to find people with the same interests
and same hobbies.
Thank you.
What is so fascinating that you have as an interest learning about IT, software development,
informatics, etc.
What is so interesting for you about it?
After a full-scale invasion, I understood that law is not a flexible job at all.
And I am a person who likes having additional plans, plan B. Therefore, I decided to learn
something from informational technology, just to be sure that everything will be okay in
my future if something happens.
I understand, and since you're mentioning the invasion, how was that day for you February
24th?
How did you hear about the invasion?
How did you discover it?
Did you believe or not?
How was the emotion?
Tell me the story of that day and then the decision to move to Canada.
C'est drôle, if I can say so, because I woke up at 7 and I decided to get prepared
for my work.
I didn't know about full-scale invasion until my mom said the war started.
And I was like, no, no way.
I didn't believe in it, really.
Because we are in Europe, 21st century civilization, which war, especially in Europe.
But yes, I came to work, no one was there except for my boss.
It was our last time we have seen each other.
After approximately 15 days since the full-scale invasion started, I decided to apply for the
visa just to have that time.
I did not want to come in Canada, but just to be sure that I have additional plan, Plan
B, I applied for a visa to Canada.
And then in April, I decided to move in Canada.
Thank you.
I noticed that you like to make, as you said, Plan A, Plan B, Plan C. Is this something
you had since childhood a part of your personality or is it something that the invasion triggered
or you learned it at law school or how this idea developed?
And is it coming from a place of fear or is it coming from a place of positive perspective
where you know the future is full of possibilities, so you try to have as many possibilities as
you can?
Based on scientific research, women has more strategic thinking than men.
It's not my words, it's words of science.
So it is the first reason.
The second reason, I'm a lawyer and I understand that Plan A cannot work, so we must have Plan
B, Plan C, and so on.
Law teaches me right now, especially how to behave myself in different situations.
Beyond that, my parents, thanks to them, gave some advices about possibilities.
And as I have mentioned before, I like to have plans to be sure that everything will
be okay.
It's like my way to be sure, way to be confident.
I understand.
And how did you choose Canada and Quebec while you could have chosen the United States or
Denmark or the UK or Australia or any other part of the world?
What attracted you to it?
And especially you mentioned you're excited about the super cold winter.
Tell me why that is exciting for you.
Extreme.
Yes, you're right.
I had lots of opportunities because before my arrival in Canada, I entered the university
in Brussels and I had the opportunity to go to the United Kingdom, but I chose Canada,
first of all, because of social security.
It's significant for me, especially after the war.
Secondly, I found here a host, so thanks for my ex-friend.
She helped me a lot, ex-best friends.
She lives in Quebec City with her family because of the full-scale invasion, and it is another
reason why I'm here.
I know that Quebec has a similar legal system with Ukraine, with some exceptions, really,
but yes, similar legal system with Ukraine.
And I always wanted to learn French and I have the possibility to learn French right
now.
Mentioning French, I know you're interested in different languages.
You put time to learn them.
Why is that?
Is it also for options so that you can live in different places and speak the language?
Why German?
Why Turkish?
Do you love the series on television, the dramas from Turkey, and you want to see them
in their original language, or tell me more about in general your love for learning languages?
And secondarily, why French, German, and Turkish?
It helps to create neural networks that will help me in future to memorize different information,
huge amount of information.
Turkish, it's interesting question because before I fell asleep, I decided just to, I
had decided to learn Turkish.
Why?
I don't know.
Just I wanted.
And beyond that, almost everyone says to me that I look like a Turkish girl.
So I decided, why not?
Let's try.
German, I learned because it is one of the popular language in Europe and therefore I
decided to learn it.
And I have learned, I had learned it before within school program.
French, it is necessary for me here to live.
Thank you so much, Angelica.
And you're an active volunteer and someone who's putting action into the world.
What is your advice or some idea or lesson you wish someone told you some years ago to
help motivate you that you can share with any women from Ukraine, from the world who
might feel, oh, I cannot do much.
I don't have the power to change the world.
And while you are taking action so that they're motivated to take that action that changes
their life, communities and the institutions around them.
My advice is who, if not you, you can die at any moment and don't regret if you want
to try something, something legal, I want to say.
If you want to try yourself in art, okay, try.
If you want to try yourself in really in other area that is not interdependent with your
main area, okay, try.
It's your life, it's your decision, and only you are responsible for your life.
That's my advice.
Thank you so much, Angelica.
This was my privilege, my honor to interview you, to share your voice, wisdom and experience.
I wish you success.
I wish peace in the world.
And all I can say is Slava Ukrainyi.
Thank you, Aziz.
Herojam Slava!
