E270 Alina Boiko

Hello, my name is Aziz and I'm the son of a divorced mother. She is really 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 people of the world together. And when we hear the voices of women, when we listen to real lives of women from other countries, we connect our cultures without 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 Alina Boyko. Alina is a language and literature student at the National University Kyiv Mohyla Academy. She is a mentor, a teacher, and a blogger from Kyiv, Ukraine. Alina is currently on an exchange at the best university in Canada, University of Toronto. She works as a teacher with more than 500 students in three years and she is the founder of blogs about education with an audience of more than 120 000 students. Alina, how are you today? Hi, nice to hear you. I'm fine and I'm ready to share my story and yeah to give some inspiration. I'm happy, I'm honored, I feel very very lucky to have you here today and I'm very curious about you as a person. So I will begin with this nice first question which is Alina, if your friends and the people who love you very very much could describe your personality what would they say about you? I'm happy because like maybe a couple of days before I've asked about it so I can give you like that information currently so firstly I think they will say that I'm smart because it is and yeah and also they will say that I'm positive and energetic and yeah they probably right in that topic. Thank you I love that and to speak about being energetic how do you build your energy? What is your advice maybe to some people or girls who feel a bit depressed or a bit low on energy so that they have that energy to conquer the world and build their dreams? Yeah thank you so nice question really firstly I would say that it's okay it's okay to feel sometimes not so good it's it's okay to feel some days that you don't have energy and it's okay to give to give for yourself some time rest just rest just see some I don't know watch some movies just lay down maybe even cry it's okay to feel like different emotions but really to be happy you we all like have to feel that energy as for me I really like do some kind of I call it like journal of gratitude because it's really important you know to feel that feeling of gratitude to that you have for example like really simple things I'm happy for nice weather today or I'm happier for my that I have so nice friends and so on so yeah then you feel bad and you like think that everyone everything everyone is gray not so bright everything is bad you just have to have to like try to find that like gratitude in your life and also if you if you do things that you like you'll be happy so also I think like girls listen to us and so it's so important to do things that you want of course it's about like it's about your like friends be with people that you feel comfortable with yeah do things that you feel comfortable and inspired for yeah and probably it's the secret of yeah energetic gratitude and like trying to build your dream life every day I love that it makes me want even more of these wise thoughts that you have which is this you are blogger you do things online and sometimes with 120 000 followers maybe some people are mean or some people some girls might worry oh what if people think I don't look nice or that my ideas are not interesting or that my posts are not aesthetic or whatever how do you build your love yourself and what is your advice for women about this yeah really I heard a lot of stories from girls for example that they won't run blog but they don't have like they are not confident enough to do it or I also like heard and I saw like the girls who always like photo shooting photos because they feel like people will judge them because of for example their appearance or something like that it's so sad and you know we live in that society then for girls a lot of pressure yeah for girls you have to be nice you have to be smart you have to be pretty you have to be always like live smile and something like that so yeah firstly i think we and yeah every girl have to like say and have to love yourself yeah first and if you if for example some girl doesn't like feel confident enough to do that it's okay maybe like take your time as it said yeah and then and then do it but actually i think it's all about practice i recall my first stories even now then i like see my stories from from the past maybe four years ago and i see that little girl and because of it i see like my growing period so it's so interesting you know run socials not for hours but for you first because you see how you changed during the time your thoughts changing your appearance changing and also we all we always think about bad things for example haters that some people will judge us will say like bad things about us but in fact it's so bad and okay like maybe a couple of haters will exist but also will be people who will support you who will say that you're nice who will find inspiration in you i recall not so like not so pleasant you know for opinions thoughts about me especially from the school period when i started my blog and my classmates said like not so good things about it you know like make some kind of jokes about it but i'm so happy that i like continue doing it and now there i am so it's so important you know then you then you hear something not pleasant about you just just that it's like people's people opinion not you as well like it's it's just opinion from others it's not you so yeah it's so important and about confidence yeah it's firstly your inner world so it's so important to to practice to maybe visit some maybe read books visit like therapy psychologist and so on because it's so important and yeah but we can recall it like otherwise if you start running your blog confidence will be like maybe later so it's like kind of practice for build confidence thank you i love it really you have so much wisdom and interesting thoughts and i'm curious about your experience you are currently in toronto canada how was adapting to the culture how was the winter because some people say to ukrainians you know uh canada is more cold than ukraine in winter how was that whole experience and what did you do and what is your advice maybe to some girls who are going on exchange so that they feel good emotionally even though they're far from their family and friends uh yeah so firstly let's start about canada and about like winter here to be honest not so cold as i expected before my arrival it's okay but yeah it's cold it's true uh but now even like i don't know maybe one um one week ago we had like really really hot temperature i even like were dressed dressed so it's it's okay and yeah i love toronto i absolutely appreciate that experience that exchange experience but yeah as you said um it's kind of difficult to even imagine like yourself so far away from home it's like our continent even and yeah of course before my arrival i feel like i felt that uh yeah i thought what it's like would be to live so far but in fact here firstly i'm so happy to be like with ukrainians as well because we are all like exchange students from ukraine not all of us but like a lot of people so for first week we are like everywhere together it's so cool because then you have like absolutely different um absolutely different environment it's so cool to have like your people from your country who understand your language near but after that it's so important to uh to go out of that bubble and to maybe going out from your comfort zone to grow and yeah it was my decision to like start to make new friends international friends and i think i did it well yeah i met some some people from different countries because yeah like canada is so diversity and it's so great that a lot of people from different countries like we live here so it's like excellent opportunity to meet them to communicate with them to uh to explore their mentality so i'm so happy that i uh like have this opportunity even now yeah i think i'll miss them after after my like returning to ukraine so yeah my advice my pieces of advice to to girls firstly even if it's scary for you but you feel i need it for my future do it because yeah i was terrified as well but i did and now no no regrets about it secondly feel no pressure if you feel that you are not ready for for example exchange program or you're not ready to meet new people it's okay just take your time but if it's possible getting out from your comfort zone is always great and yeah if you talk about education it's so important because we are not like only uh you know having fun we have a lot of studying here for example i currently studying in like two universities and it's like double assignments from one university and then from another so it's so important to build your like time management skills so yeah prepare prepare that things maybe won't be so easy because yeah it's also about different language uh then we're talking about like program it will be like not your like native language so it's also kind of difficult but i get used to it so i think that girls always also will get to use it and be happy for new experience in their life thank you so much so much positivity in your thoughts i really encourage your success i'm happy for it at the same time you as a ukrainian of course ukraine has been in war since 2014 or even longer some will say for hundreds of years was attacked and during the invasion by russia on february 24th what was your story of that day and of that experience did you believe it did you not believe it how what were your emotions in that day and how did you change as a person from that day till today yeah it's so you know it's so hard to share that experience but at the same time it's so important to talk about it so then then invasion started i was at my hometown harku region yeah i like moved from kiev to my parents house to my hometown because my parents like said that maybe something would be so it's better for you to stay with us and i'm so happy that i like listened to them and yeah i was with my relatives then it's then it started yeah i i absolutely recall like that each detail firstly i remember that like that night before 24 of um february i i worried about like my studies i said oh my god i have so much to do tomorrow it means like 24 uh i have like a couple of tutorials also have my lesson oh my god how can i deal with it so like that kind problems uh were in my head but yeah and then i remember i woke up and i just heard like my parents talking so loud and i was annoyed because of it because like um one more time i i was like terrified of like that busy day but yeah then i like check telegram chat uh of like our with my classmates you know from keemahill academy and also with teachers from keemahill academy and one like one teacher said like so you already know we won't have tutorial today uh slava ukraine and a lot of heroem slava and yeah after that i realized happened yeah just searching the news and um yeah i'm happy that i were at my hometown i was at my hometown because you know that's like support from parents that we are all together it's so nice and like first days in our like town were like okay they are okay of course we heard a lot of air alarms because it's harking region uh and yeah it's always a lot of um yeah and first days like after invasion we all i think we all think that it will end soon like maybe week maybe two weeks something like that and i remember my like frauds when like um week gone and i was like why why it's like doesn't end something like that so yeah but the more days we spent in such environment the more like we started to realize that no it's not for it's not for like um only one one week or a couple of weeks and it will take more time yeah and i started maybe to i started to help because i have my blog i have my knowledge so i started like activities to help our local volunteers from harki region we raised money we raised money like um i post stories yeah and they do that and also i raised money from my lessons i like like did that charity lessons yeah of ukrainian language and literature for like just pupils yeah like for school children and also like for everyone like modern ukrainian language something like that and then you do that stuff then you when you feel that you help your country it's really like important and it's really important feeling to to feel that you are you are not like alone you have your own country you have like um your your people from your country and you all like work for uh for your victory so yeah it was so important and it helped me thank you so much and slava ukraine and another part of you of your person is helping a lot of students being a mentor etc can you tell me a bit more about that in that how can let's say there are women who want to teach something it's not even related to having students but maybe they want to start a business in social media maybe they want to fight for the rights of some people or of women or to support ukraine and create a famous blog about it what would be your advice and is it a positive good thing or is it somehow bad because too many people will recognize you in the street and then you worry if some people are crazy or something like that within ukraine can you share the reality of it what is necessary for women to learn so that they can build their brand online and the positive and if there are any negatives tell us more so yeah you'd like to like tell me about like tell about teaching stuff or blogging stuff okay first now i want about instagram how women can succeed in it without you know like it be succeed in it in order to help teaching or help their new business or fashion or for their country or anything so they have enough followers so that their voice will make a difference in this world i can cut this part just to explain but i want like let's say there she is a teenager and she believes that people should follow veganism and not kill animals and she wants to create a blog about it but she doesn't want only to have 100 followers so what is the advice you would give her but also for you was it always only positive to have that blog or maybe sometimes people in real life they follow you sometimes in the street they see you and you're like i don't know i'm always like people recognize me i cannot be totally free or i don't know maybe it's all positive that people come to you and they're like we love you you're amazing it's just the same yeah thank you so firstly i would say that in our 21st century it's it's really nice to have your blog and even if it's not so big you're like micro or it's also great you just share your life you like depict your personality through that so it's important to have like if you feel that that you want so why not why not try yeah and have your like brand your personality brand from it's so important because yeah then you are like personality that's have who have like followers and they will they will like hear your words it's exactly it's the true of course that they can say i'm not agree with you and it's also okay if they say it like in ecological way or no you're absolutely non-correct it's like silly thoughts of you know we are not talking about it but if they can prove their opinions it's okay to have like different opinions but yeah it's like kind of so why influencer yeah bloggers synonym is influencer because because you can like influence to people's to people's thoughts and it's great that we have a lot of great influencers that are really influenced well uh yeah because for example environment problems or educational problems or women rights it's so important and then like influencers bloggers they talk about it and they can like share their experience and it's so important so if you feel if some girls you yeah let's say listen to us if you feel that you want to share your opinions to world to spread your ideas do that but yeah you have to you really have to be ready to hate yeah and i know it's hard i know that a lot of they they don't want to do it because they're afraid of hate so yeah it's true it could be that hate but if you feel that you are right and it's really you to share that opinions it's it's important and you like deal with it that hate because of okay it's hate but you will also have like people who support your ideas so why why don't you why don't you think about them not about haters yeah but a lot of positives yeah i i remember i just walk in like kiev a lot of times and i met my followers even here in toronto i was at like kind of meeting with ukrainians for like for our yeah you know support for support in our country by canadian government and and i also met some subscribers of mine here even in canada so it's it's interesting yeah it's interesting to see your subscribers in real life yeah but no i i think i have so nice subscribers they won't follow me you know like maybe shooting me hidingly so yeah thank you so much i love that and i encourage all women to be inspired by your story and everything you share and i want to know because i you spoke about harkiv and it's a very beautiful city especially before the invasion a lot of girls they said we love harkiv more than kiev that's why we choose to study in harkiv why did you choose to study in kiev muheela academy did you fall in love with kiev city or what is your opinion because really i heard many that they say life in harkiv is so much nicer so much more comfortable than in kiev we want to study in a university like kiev national university or something like that i mean in harkiv national university or something like that so what are your thoughts about this so yeah firstly i'm not like actually from harkiv i'm from harkiv region from like small town yeah and a lot of my friends they are like studying in harkiv because it's more convenient firstly it's like much more closer yeah to hometown and yeah a lot of like nice universities exist in harkiv even harkiv is called like student city because a lot of like students there but as for me i am appreciate my experience in kiev i love kiev but uh yeah it it was like getting out of my comfort zone uh yeah i was scared to like moving such far away uh yeah from my hometown to like the capital of ukraine yeah everything is new new people but i'm so happy that i did it because i now i really i really love kiev i have a lot of friends there i have my favorite sports there so it's so like nice to live and also like why kiev because yeah kiev mokhyla academy it's so so like nice educational center educational institution so it's so it was my choice to to study there thank you so much and to finish this what do you see as the vision for your future what do you want to do next what goals do you have for yourself especially after the invasion changed many things what do you think will be the right plans that make your future come true yeah actually i want to start with like war of course after after invasion a lot of people they are afraid of like no future in ukraine so we have to move yeah and maybe for someone it's it's right because someone like lost their homes their jobs and they see no opportunities but as for me i see opportunities and i see opportunities in ukraine because if for example i don't see them i like once returned to ukraine from canada a lot of people here like ask me why why are you returning maybe it's like better for you to stay here but now i feel like i will have opportunities in ukraine as a ukrainian philologist like language and literature ukrainian language and literature student i know firstly for me how important now it's ukrainian language and literature and so i can be like that kind of specialist who will help people to learn our language etc and i see a lot of opportunities in ukraine yeah i'll i'll repeat it because it's true for me i i feel that and i know that like after our victory things will be brilliant in our country so i i think that and it's my like country i feel like support there a lot of friends there a lot of like my parents so i for now i feel that i won't be there but who knows in about future like couple of months ago i i even didn't think about like exchange to our country and i didn't think about living in our country for more than three months so it's like life it's kind of unexpected but it's but it's also interesting to have that unexpected things like to take to take life as a some kind of magic yeah great magic and yeah about my goals for future i am i will return to ukraine and do some educational educational products educational maybe my build my own like educational system i really want to meet people offline to do some like some kind of offline events with my followers to feel that connection because it's so important to see people not like but on the screen but in real life so i won't do that i won't like finish my starting and maybe do my master degree maybe i'll do my master degree somewhere abroad who knows yeah i have a lot of plans yeah we have like kind of superstition you know to not share them all before they like come through so yeah but we will see i will see you will see yeah thank you alina it was my privilege and my honor to have you in this project to hear your experiences and your inspiring thoughts thank you for sharing your voice and again all i can say is thank you thank you and thank you for like your subscribers to hear that maybe they will make their own decision conclusion insights from our conversation