30 Min Wonder Walk

I love walking. More than that, I love walking in (downtown) Toronto. Last month I decided that – as much as possible, – I will walk from work to home. The walk is 3.0km, from Yorkville’s Bay & Bloor to Chinatown’s residence of mine. Some days I leave work at 6pm, tired or mildly frustrated (work is never stressful… yet ), but 5 minutes into the walk, I lighten up.By the time I get home, I’m skipping a little to my music, I smile to myself and all you passers-by, and damn, I’m just happy to be alive.

I also LOVE you Toronto. I’ve a feeling you love me back. But every time I walk this little route, I just feel it more and more, and if I had to settle in Canada, I’d probably settle here.

I walk west on Bloor and smile at the sun that sets right against my eyes, and I look at beautiful or gaudy things in the window shops. I understand why (target buying demographic) there are old, square and absurd jackets in the Chanel display and why Gucci reeks of slut, and why Lacoste is borderline soro/fraternity preppy (there’s another angle to this). It doesn’t matter – by the time I pass the Royal Conservatory, I’m enamored with fleets of Rolls Royce, Jaguar, BMW, Audi; there are valet figurines everywhere. Ah, smile smile smile on.

Jocks on the football field, Rotman, Bata shoe museum. Every time I walk down St George, I am reminded of my UBC days. But this is better because I don’t go there anymore. I see passers-by and I can almost picture their personalities – here is a future management accounting titan, he’s wearing a mismatched shirt and tie, but the KPMG recruiters will forgive him. He listens to music that’s five years behind, but he reads all the right publications, he gets enough rest before exams and does not party on the weekend. And there’s our running athlete on the right, a beautiful freshman girl who broke up with her boyfriend when she left her small town. Toronto is a little bit intimidating, but watching Sex and the City with fellow dorm girls and running on weeknights (when there are no group meetings!) helps her forget him.

On and on. I love all these sights, and I love my city, and I love what I do, what I am, where I am, who I’m surrounded by. And so, whatever non-positive mood I was in 30 minutes ago dissipates completely, and I’m bouncing off the walls, throwing pink marshmallows in the air!

Filed under: simple life , love, memories, toronto

Book/Film Re-Runs

Catholic guilt is the term used to identify the supposed excess guilt felt by Catholics and lapsed Catholics. The term catholic guilt is controversial as it is not clearly differentiated from the guilt felt by members of other religions or moral codes. Says Wikipedia. This term is too strong for this post, but I use it when describing my feelings towards other things. Moreover, I’m not even Catholic.

I have a problem with watching the same film, or, worse, reading the same book, over and over and over because I’m acutely aware of the lack of time in a life (add to that the daily-changing probabilities of a sudden, tragic or freak death, accident or a negative surprise; life gets even shorter), and I feel that spending time re-reading the best book in the world will handicap me in my quest for self-development, entertainment and the general betterment.

If I get my mittens on a much beloved DVD, I don’t watch it right away (unless I’m trying to educate fellow bright minds during their visits to my pixie palace). I set it aside and feel torn between it (the personally approved) and the unseen latest and greatest (at least critically acclaimed or much-recommended, or “really important as per some weirdos” works). It’s not so difficult with films. I end up plowing through the cinematic world with no problem, catching both old and new, but rarely on repeat.

I have never re-read a book. I have absolute favorites, with highlighted passages, scribbles, smiley faces and comments in the margins, but I never read them again. I covet them, place them on display, and recommend left-right-center, but that’s it. Time is too precious. On top of that, I do remember the story line and have selected quotes written in my secret book.

I also rarely read contemporary fiction, because there is a higher probability that I won’t like it. Would I rather spend time on something that’s received a Nobel prize in Literature (check out the list, if you’ve got no author to read), something that inspires a dozen+ of other cultural pieces, or something that’s recently become a NY Times bestseller (which, by the looks of it, is every fiction book at Chapters). I pick 100 Years of Solitude over Life of Pi; I will sweat and labor over William Faulkner than surrender to Dan Brown. Does this make me some kind of a psychotic nut? Hey… I can just wait and give all this contemporary stuff 50 years and see where it gets them

In the dark ages of the past, I have been guilty of watching Titanic (I said it! I was twelve!), The Fifth Element, La Dolce Vita, 8 1/2, Hercules (Go Disney!), Coraline, The Hole very frequently. These movies are only 5% reflective of my favorites. My favorite movie of all times – Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal, – was probably watched thrice in my lifetime. That’s it. What is the correlation between favorite films/books and those that I actually watched many, many times? Probably has to do with young age and having a lot more time dedicated to havoc and idleness (although I read!) vs now.

PS. Last contemporary book I’ve read was Pride & Prejudice & Zombies (hey, it was featured in episode 1 of Heroes, Season4). And it was awesome. Can we please have more remixing of old and new? I do like some light beach reading (poetry, Lewis Carroll), don’t get me wrong.

Filed under: film, literature , film, literature, memories, movies, obsessions, self

Following Tetro

To add to my previous post, the review of Tetro – I was the youngest person in the audience, it seems. Why is it that I was the youngest person in the whole theatre? Do young people do not watch Francis Ford Coppola? Do young people have no interest in cinema? Do young people even care about themes expressed in the movie?

The whole time I was watching it, I was thinking about following my dreams, about not going with the flow, and about not settling for the average. I’ve been told by my parents and by good friends and all sorts of people that it’s all right to lower my expectations and just take whatever “best” is available at my disposal. But my disposal restrains me to one city, to downtown, to be precise. And “my disposal” is actually not a limited radius, but an ever changing circle of desires, goals and aspirations.

And not even that. I was thinking about how with time I’ve had reoccurring thoughts of “Perhaps, I should go with this, perhaps, this is all right”. On some days I’m almost ready to shut down my wanderlust and the desire to leap into the unknown. I never, never feel that this is it. Everywhere I’ve been and lived, I knew that it was all just a transitory period. No location is ever permanent, no set-up is ever to continue and to be made into a routine.

Only someone on the same path knows. The great earth is so vast, it makes people so utterly sad.
— Engo, in case 23 of the Hekigan-roku

Filed under: imaginings , development, memories, sad, self, sometimes

Searching For Words

Originally uploaded by brandis78

Yesterday I was passing by Umbra, because I needed to buy a present for someone, and I slowed down considerably because I forgot the word “dragonfly” in English.

(For those that don’t know, I’m originally from Russia, and speak her language fluently, and write and read it with no problem; a few years after I moved to Canada I started thinking in English and most of my schooling was in this language as well). I remembered it in Russian of course.

Then I realized that when it comes to language and expressing myself, the simple words come to me quicker in Russian – that is, words I learned when I was a child, words that are hardwired in my brain. They come to me in my native tongue first, so that I sometimes have to think hard before naming a ladle or watermelon to an English speaker.

On another hand, words that I learned later in life, that I used most or originally understood in English, arrive in my brain in English, and take enough seconds to mentally locate their Russian counterparts. That is why I struggle when explaining bigger concepts involving brand management, mergers & acquisitions or exasperation in Russian to my parents. Takes forever to translate the big ticker words to them.

Now, if only I learned all kinds of words when I was younger – in whichever language came first, – then I’d have less mental pauses… Nah, it’s not so bad, really. But I do struggle with occasional vegetable or grain naming, and I completely suck at naming birds.

As Sally says, “There are two kinds of birds in Karin’s world. Ducks, and birds.”

Filed under: memories , interests, lang, languages, learning, memories, word

Marshall McLuhan is immortal… or something

“The past went that-away. When faced with a totally new situation, we tend to always attach ourselves to the objects, to the flavor of the most recent past. We look at the present through a rear-view mirror. We march backwards into the future. Suburbia lives imaginatively in Bonanza-land.”

…from The Medium is the Massage (1967). And it had to do with his communication theory. But that work touched upon so many other aspects.

Indeed, don’t we spend too much time going back, comparing, and repeating scenes from the past? Mostly, we humans tend to stick to the past as we tippy-toe into tomorrow. Constant analysis, checks, and verifications.

I got better at jumping forward without thinking much about the past. On one hand, that’s great as I jump into experiences with an open mind; on the other, that may suggest that I don’t take into account lessons from the past and run forward anyway.

In either case, without a proper cost-benefit analysis and a necessary dip into the past, one simply would not be able to make proper decisions. Past is past, you can’t completely give it up; you just can’t always check back with it, and compare memories (there are a lot of issues with this, but we’ll save that for another post) with the present and future possibilities.

I find it’s simply a constant struggle to embrace, welcome and cultivate self-taught acceptance and even love of change. Like swimming up the river, salmon-stylez.

Filed under: Quotable, memories , literature, media, memories, Quotable, quote, self

Bragging About Education Is Totally Acceptable

“Winning is not everything, but wanting to win is.” Vince Lombardi

I’ve been transcribing last term’s successes as well as its struggles on Twitter for the past four months now, but I’m done now, and would like to dedicate this post to my Bachelor of Commerce degree. I graduate with a 3.62 GPA, which likely puts me in a good position to apply to grad schools. I have not picked any specific programs yet, but they’ll most likely revolve around an MFA or a mix of MFA + MBA. Something new, something useful in tackling the future where I’ll be spending a lot of time.

It’s been a crazy ride, featuring Sauder School of Business (at UBC) and the Ted Rogers School of Management (Ryerson). Transferring credits set my graduation back one year, but no matter. Below I list some of the most valuable courses of my undergrad years for the skills they taught me and for personal and professional roads they opened:

1. Strategic Management – an amazing course taught by Steve Gedeon at Ryerson. The professor drilled into our heads the real value behind essentialization, or selecting and communicating most valuable information for decision-making purposes.  Answering the “So what” question is the second element that helped me to write stellar business plans and get my point across.
2. Modern and Postmodern Art - this course dipped me into the pool of beautiful as deeply as possible. I love them because not only did I learn about the key players of last century’s art scene, but I also discovered an infinite web of connections between pop culture, film, business and politics. And I try to keep tabs on my knowledge of art history.
3. Marketing Communications – mostly due to our dynamic professor Marla Spergel, I really enjoyed this course and got a taste of the advertising world. And also made a final and total decision to become part of it (the new advertising, v. 2.0 if you will).
4. Philosophy of Love and Sex – thank gods we got to pick electives; this course made me feel like I went through really amazing therapy sessions. Learned about multi-dimensional relationship dynamics, digged into the depths of “what is love and to love” questions and had the pleasure of working with one of the best and most entertaining professors I ever encountered – James Cunningham.
5. Industry Analysis – a.k.a. the economics of strategy. One of the hardest courses I’ve taken, full of readings and theory, it helped me grasp a better sense of strategy and market dynamics, made me want to read books on war, find joy in writing industry reports and standing my ground. The final A+ industry report I wrote is going into my portfolio of accomplishments.
6. Introduction to Quantitative Decision Making and Application of Statistics in Business – I combine these two classes into one, because they go back to back and are heavily related. Although I struggled through its first part, I cannot ignore its value because almost every finance-laden project and marketing plan needs it. I can also optimize with this baby and fight uncertainty. What a warrior. Stats will haunt us all forever.
7. Ethics in Finance – it sparked my interest in the markets that spreads beyond course content. It also set my ethical beliefs in a more responsible direction. Learned the root of the recent economic crisis and sincerely began to care for sustainable business practices, all thanks to the awesome Dr. Allen Goss.
8. Academic Writing - goes in hand with #1 because you need to be damn able to write coherently if you tamper with complex topics. Especially when your page limit is 10 and you have to communicate the essence of at least 40.

PS. 100th blog post

Filed under: memories, moving up , development, education, ideas, memories, ryerson, self

We Got 5 Years

5 years ago, when I was 17 and about to finish high school – first let me tell you, it was an exciting time because I was a genius in History 12, secured two hot career preparation program placements, got into the university of my choice, had a rockstar boyfriend, grand plans, read the some of the most influential books and was just so happy to reach the peak of my teenage days, – I wrote a collection of prose poetry a la Dreamtigers (you can read parts right here!).

Called From A Dreamtiger, with its mantelpiece is My Baby Krishna (the pictured object on the left), the collection centers on my perceptions of colors, relationships between numbers, memories of friends of the past, and travels. I was really proud of it because it was my first non-childish collection of pieces that really channeled . My writing instructors liked them, as well as MFA writing candidates that I used to talk to a lot. Back then I used to say that every five years I feel like writing about things from the past, and I will probably write about 2004 five years down the road.

In the past month I started to recall more and more little and big things from roughly 5 years ago – events, details, light, people, words exchanged. I remember the walks to the theatre in the falling snow, picnics in the forest, writing papers on the horrors of The Satyricon, frantically trying to comprehend the stock market in a race to win, Spanish visitors, multiple bars in Vancouver with equally multiple sins and vices, music and music and music, the film and modeling, bright future, eternal union, new member of the family, utter confusion borne out of fear of loss and changes, and more and more, expressed in frail and sensitive terms.

I feel the coming of the second chapter of my recollections, which I will add to the first and start looking for publishing opportunities.

Filed under: memories , beauty, changes, creative, development, memories, self, vancouver, writing, youth

at Bar Gagarin

Originally uploaded by dreamtiger

This is one of my most favorite photos of me. This one is like a secret that I’m not telling, just look at those cheeky eyes. There’s something special about being in Berlin, sitting on a bright red chair that matches my hair, under a large pretty umbrella with a bright orange neon backpack, purple watch, teal shirt that says “It’s not over, not over, yeah” (which is, in my opinion, influenced by the Klaxons’ “It’s not over, not over, not over yet”), and teaching my friend about the proper ways of drinking vodka, according to the Russians. Our plate is called Intelligenz, and it includes chopped herring with apple, pickles, rye bread, onions and some other goodies.
I’m actually glad there is quite a number of us Russian folks in Berlin. It’s always nice to encounter fellow men so far away from the Motherland.
By the way, few days later, when I was in Barcelona, someone (an Eastern European fellow from Talinn, Estonia) who used to follow my Livejournal a while back messaged me and asked me if I was at Bar Gagarin in Prenzlauer Berg on such and such date. I said, yes, why. He said he was there at exactly the same time, and recognized my red hair. Wow, talk about coincidence!? Small world, folks, small world. I can only imagine what my life is going to be like in 5-7 years.

This is Dave drinking his portion of the Intelligentz

Filed under: the world eh , Berlin, Europe, food, friends, fun, memories, photos

Top 10 Parties Of All Time

at Space, 2008

I present to you my favorite parties of the past 5 years (since that’s when I started dipping into the scene). The type of an event you talk about for weeks after, revel in the photos/videos and wish you could do it over & over again.

1. Carl Cox at Space, Ibiza, Spain, August 2008. Function 1 sound system, tons of happy people everywhere, amazing beats, all in the legendary Ibiza! I don’t need to describe too much.

2. Egyptrixx, Alias et al. at the Palms Out Sounds CMJ showcase, New York, 2008. Not only the quest of getting there with friends was a blast, but the non-stop heavy beat danceathon till 4am was a pleasant way to kill the October night. Oh yes, it ended with a breakfast at 5am.

3. Housemeister & Modeselektor at Igloofest, Montreal, January 2009. It was an amazing outdoor experience in January at -15C, complete with running into Vancouver acquiantances and dancing with a giant pink rabbit, as well as videotaping the fun, falling in love with techno for the n-th time and bartending comrades.

1. 

   Watergate, Berlin. 5am

4. Tresor and Watergate, Berlin, August 2008. Both of these parties are at par and happened few days apart. Tresor “never sleeps”, and is a scary former power plant – I clearly remember walking in the basement towards utter darkness, but towards the heavy sounds of techno, knowing I was certainly walking to a right place. Watergate was a blast with Krystel & Gerald with sunrise on the canal, and random guys from Chicago gifting us roses.

5. Richie Hawtin aka Plastikman, Vancouver, October 2005. I went by myself and met a million people, got a pass to get on stage and had Richie’s aunt (!) videotape me dancing. I also drank her champagne and ended up at the afterparty where Richie spun. Pretty random and advanced for Vancouver town.

6. My 20th birthday party, Vancouver, July 2006. It started with the longest Japanese Izakaya dinner with friends – first came the squares, then mid-funsters, then rockstars. We ended up at Shine night club and I told Paul Devro that it was my birthday and that I bought the dress I was wearing earlier that day at Dadabase, so he gave me a bunch of drink tickets. 6am bed times after whole lotta fun with close friends.

7. Ellen Allien, Mod Club, Toronto, September 2006. “Last night a DJ saved my life” is exactly how I felt about that night. I’ve been in love with Ellen for few years then, and seeing her few feet apart was unbelievable. Plus, I met an amazing dance team and made new friends in a city I just moved to!

8. Black Ghosts, Wrongbar, Toronto, July 2008. I was extremely tired that evening, but Egyptrixx and Alias dragged me out to an amazing show. I was impressed with live singing and mixing, old beats and crazy rave tunes. Even though I never been to a rave, I felt like I did that time. Great workout, too.

9.Bodyheat party, San Francisco, June 2007. My friend Logan threw a lot of Bodyheat parties back in 2007. We drove from Los Angeles that night. Arriving at 3am, we hopped in just in time for super drunk people to depart and diehards to kick it.

10. Running amok with Michael Leyton, San Francisco, December 2005. The first time we met, we went to a BYOB Mangosteen place, then went to Japantown and stole an American flag after some drinks, explored SF in a car, then I persuaded my way into some cheesy club (being underage), where we danced hardcore to 80’s rock music, screaming “We want techno!” It ended with Michael crashing his car.

Filed under: memories , 2004, 2006, 2008, 2009, Berlin, dancing, Europe, fun time, ibiza, memories, self, Spain, travels, vancouver

Mario Entertainment

I enjoy Mario video game, loved playing it back in the day, despite the fact that I never finished it! Never! Maybe it’s the Bowzer’s communist spirit that got to me. Who knows. But the Japanese recently did a live pupper/actor show. They were quite agile and animated, gotta love that:

And what about Mario inspired by a first person shooter?

Back to work, all!

Filed under: random facts , fun, games, memories, video

On Learning

Originally uploaded by dreamtiger

When I was about 6 or 7 years younger when it was the time to choose some kind of a profession, I used to say: “If I could just learn for the rest of my life, and get paid for that, I’d do it.” And I suppose I can become an academic, but the second problem that occurred was the choice of the subject to become an expert on.
Eventually, I gave up that idea, but I still possess this hunger for learning. I’m lucky to have a job where my task is to actually seek out new knowledge and amazing content. Some of the greatest educational video blogs of priceless information are Fora TV and TED Talks. I recently found Change This, which is just full of amazing documents. And of course Wikipedia is there for up-to-date information.
But learning for me is not just about keeping up to date with the blogosphere and fads, it is also learning about music (that includes visits to the symphony orhestra), culture, language, film, scientific advances, fashion collections, dancing (see photo), literature of the past and present. The list can go on forever. I want to know everything there is to know about the world, and I want to learn as much as possible. Self-development ends on a deathbed.

Filed under: simple life , learning, memories, self

Highlights of 2008

I’m glad the year of the Mouse/Rat is over. It was a tough year, but also a very rewarding one, filled with events, color and life. It was definitely a great one for meeting new people and leaving the dead end contacts behind. It was a year of travels, learning, emotional change of scenery, breaking the habits, and finding peace. In short:

Vice internship, movies with Slava, Barbi, snow angel challenge, high tea, cuckoo New York trip, mad revelations and heartbreaks, the legendary night of the Justice show at the Great Hall, indoor pool voleyball in Richmond Hill with a blizzard outside, Montreal for the first time ever, straight to Vancouver, the return of Dimitri, straight A’s that semester, “I love nature” cottage visit, summer internship, more Montreal, Lemeac, Rajni, Ottawa, Rafael Nadal, gourmet adventures with Roberto, Magdalena’s return, dancing late and coming to work early, Osho, red eye to Europe, constantly ringing cell in Berlin, Baltic Sea, goth party in the bunker, wasp attack, Kunstwerke, Michael and Karin’s epic search for a gallery, scootering in Ibiza, flying, getting lost in the hills with fuel running out, Gaudi, Joan Miro, Catalan people, Faulkner’s Light in August, La Tomatina, Valencia’s paellas, the girl from Jupiter, getting lost in Barcelona with a flight to catch, gloomy London and port, vintage stores in Shoreditch, Strategic Planning, yoga, wonderful professors, wonderful people, PalmsOut in October, jerks stealing my possessions, Vosges chocolate in SoHo, Coney Island freak show, Mad Men, calming down, peace of mind, movie night with dear C.L., playing the tambourine till 4am, BBDO, roommate reunion, blizzards in Vancouver, the return of Scotch, securing that opportunity, The Sacred Book of the Werewolf, light at the end of the tunnel, Russian madhouse, caviar and champagne on New Year’s Eve.

Filed under: memories , 2008, barcelona, bbdo, Berlin, career, Europe, friends, fun, fun time, ibiza, improvements, joy, life, London, memories, montreal, plans, review, ryerson, Spain, tomatina, toronto, travels

Six Things That Make Me Happy

Below is my happy 6 in alphabetical order, as I wouldn’t be to assign numbers anyway:

• Baths: When I was a child, living back in Russia, I used to love two things the most – books and water. Combining the two led to Fridays and Saturdays spent in the bath tub, reading. Those were the epic nights: 4-hour bath marathons, sometimes with bubbles, but usually without (dealing with foamy things is so burdensome when you have a good book to worry about), snacks, tea, whatnot. I’m starting to revive the tradition, but alas, the bath tub at my Toronto abode is not the best, so I resort to bathing in my Vancouver home or at friend’s (yes, I know…)

• Bugs Tomato: He’s three years old, and I still call him a puppy. I wrote a post about this wonderful, smart, handsome and loving chihuahua here.

• Good conversations: I value a great debate, or an emotional discussion, confessions, dramatic monologues, lively dialogues, and really, any conversation that does the intelligence of my fellow debaters justice. I feel rejuvenated after a really good talk, be that a discussion of the latest scientific discovery, the welfare of silverback gorrillas in the Virunga valley, the next hotshot DJ, Martin Margiela SS 09  or the economic environment of Mauritius. As you can tell, I like to learn a thing or two when talking to others.

• Style: this encompasses doing activities in style, to living in style, to keeping it real, to dressing oneself well, to being the person one truly wants to be. That’s what style really is. It’s not just about the latest clothing item or the pink Juicy Couture jumpsuit (eek), it’s how one carries him/herself. It makes me really happy to see people expressing themselves in whatever fashion that would be. Just do express yourself tastefully.

• Seafood: I’m the master devourer of oysters, sashimi (particularly fatty tuna and west coast salmon). I adore octopi, including their effects on my tastebuds as well as on my mind – those cephalopods are smarty pants, too. Some of you know my endless love affair with caviar (another post of mine) – my nickname is Behemoth is for the same reason. Mussels are never a no, and so is swordfish, and even red snapper brightens my day. I’ve written about lobsters, too, and would delightfully consume them all day, every day, followed by a great dose of niacin to battle the cholesterol.

• Travel: New places, new people, discoveries of the self and of the culture of others. I thrive on being someplace new, getting out of my comfort zone and jumping into the unknown. I travel well alone as I don’t have to adjust my own schedule to anyone else’s and can maintain my ‘get up early, do cultural things, eat local foods, snap lots of pictures, go out and be social till the wee hours’, then rinse and repeat.  As for the airports: given the weather is not ruining the flights and angry fliers aren’t in my face, I am always excited to be in these shrines of constant departure and arrival. Flying is the best for me, driving – the least exciting.

I would be interested to see what the following people would include in their lists:  Tara, Kevin, Vaneska, Slava, Kat, Danielle.

Filed under: moving up , bugstomato, caviar, chihuahua, fashion, food, friends, fun, joy, memories, obsessions, penchant, russia, seafood, travels

Моя Семья

I absolutely love my family: my parents plus Bugs Tomato. Mom and dad are some of the coolest out there, with so many stories to tell, so many places to have seen. They always took me with them no matter where they went (except that one time when they went to Thailand alone), always kept me in the loop and always made sure I had maximum fun.

When I was a kid mom always made me do puzzles, complete various projects and whatnot. Now I think it had something to do with her developing my problem-solving, spatial skills and what not. Thanks! Dad was focused on me developing my memory – he’d make me memorize words from the dictionary and other stuff before I go out and play in the yard with other kids. Pretty smart, too, dad. And if my mom hadn’t forced me to read White Bim Black Ear, I would have never really gotten into books!

The above photo is from the night my parents and my uncle went to a new restaurant opening in the city, and some psycho tried to stab my dad. Thank god for sporty bodyguards. And this photo is from a day on my parents’ friend’s yacht somewhere in the Far East. Pacific Ocean on the other side from LA.

Filed under: memories , family, love, memories, photos, polaroid, russia

High Achievements & Still Highs

Ibiza, Aug 2008. Rocking out with my socks out...

…on life Been hustlin’ and hustlin’ and hustlin’.

When I was at BBDO on Monday, the HR lady practically interviewed me right there and then. One of the many questions she asked me, “What was your greatest achievement?” Or the achievement I was most proud about. Historically, my victories have all been academic, as I haven’t actually embarked on that up-the-ladder journey (I’ll more likely be hopping up two or three ladders simultaneously) yet.

So, an achievement that I am most proud of so far is the one relating to me having gone from a B/B- GPA at the University of British Columbia (my finance dark days) to an A average, which then led to a Golden Key Society Membership. I have always been a straight A student, but some things happened at the university level and I had a lot of ground to cover to reach a Golden Key level. And I did.

Another achievement that I always think about took place in 1997 when my family just moved back to Russia (Magadan city) from Czech Republic (Prague). I was 11 and I forgot Russian at that point. But I quickly got it back. I was placed in grade 3, and our homeroom teacher presented us with a mathematical problem from the grade 6 curriculum. I did not have the math backing to solve the problem, but since all 40 of us 11 year olds had to present some kind of a solution to our teacher, I struggled. I struggled for 48 hours and couldn’t figure it out. I couldn’t figure it out until 2 hours before the class, when a strike of genius commanded my hand to write some grade 6 math gibberish (grade 8 by Western standards), and et voila – the satisfied and respectful face of my teacher always appears in my head when I do something amazing.

Filed under: memories , achievement, bbdo, career, development, future, improvements, marketing, memories, monday, productivity, work