This is me.

Hello, lovely peeps!

Yep, I decided to try out blogging and create a space for me to express my thoughts on different topics. (Some examples would be traveling, social justice, self-love, self-care, music, etc.)
To start with, I thought I'd introduce myself and tell you all a little bit about my life and who I am. My name is Elina, I am 22. I grew up in a beautiful country of Russia and you will hear a lot of how messed up but still near and dear to my heart my home county is. I was lucky (still am) to have grown up in a beautiful family of 4. My mom and dad are some of the most amazing, hardworking, kindest people you'll ever meet. My sister, Leah, is totally one of the coolest people I know. My grandparents are the reason my fam and I are where we are now, they have supported us and have been there for us when we needed it. Some of my passions include music (which I have been doing since I was very little), traveling (which I have been able to do a lot of growing up thanks to my amazing family),  learning new languages, meeting new people from all over the world, venting about social justice, spending time with family and friends, talking about life, reading awesome books, and watching awesome educational YouTube videos.
While in Russia, I went to school and did a whole bunch of extracurricular activities outside school as well. I started with dance but it got to be just a but too intense and for medical reasons I had to quit. Then came choir which I did for a number of years. Then I stopped for a minute and at about age ten or eleven I came back to it. By around hate time it became quite clear that music is preetty important to me and singing is something I can even be somewhat decent at. So, come twelve years old, my piano teacher at the time (who also taught general music at my school) decided to have me participate in this singing contest and gave me a song to sing that was a wee bit too high for me. (Certain notes in it I just couldn't hit) So we went to consult an actual voice teacher (who was the colleague of the piano teacher I mentioned earlier) and ever since then I got totally sucked in. Long story short- I started with just private voice lessons and then got accepted into a music school where my voice teacher worked. I spent seven years there and to this day I come visit there very often when I come home. (I will explain in a minute) It became my second home and that it will forever remain. Now, mind you, my school and my music school were about 40 min by car, which meant 1.5-2 hrs by public transportation, but it was all totally worth the commute! Pretty much this was my life- family and friends, school, music school. And I loved it, even though it definitely was hella busy and had plenty of challenges.
Fast-forward to now, September of 2017, a 22-yeard old me sitting in a cute coffee show in Whitewater, WI. How? Let me tell you really quick. As I was about to graduate high-shool in 2013, I needed to figure out what to do. Summer of 2012, I went to Boston, MA, to be a part of a Five-Week Summer Performance Program organized by Berklee College of Music. I loved every minute of it and all I wanted from then on was to be a student there. I auditioned twice and got admitted but without any financial aid. For my family, paying for my education at Berklee was close to impossible, as much as we wanted to send me there. Knowing that was quite devastating because I didn't really see the possibility of me going to any other school, that's how badly I wanted to be at Berklee. But my mom was able to convince me (thankfully) that there are many other schools that offer good education and that I should try to apply to universities abroad anyways. And I did. I got accepted to a school in Germany, LA, and to my school of choice, North Central College in Naperville, Il. So on September 9th of 2013, my dad and I went off to the States to move me in to my new dorm and send me off to what was about to be the most challenging, amazing, rewarding adventure of my life. With no intention to brag whatsoever, I can say that I absolutely love to see who I have become as a person because of everything that living abroad has brought upon me. The growth that took place, the things I have learned, the beautiful, loyal friends I have made, the amazing teachers and mentors I am so privileged to know, are things I will treasure for the rest of my life.
I will make a separate post about my experience living and studying abroad and how it affected very single aspect of my life, but for now, let me just stop here so I don't get too long here.
I cannot wait to see what reaction this post and the overall idea of me blogging will generate. I am also looking forward to sharing my thoughts and opinions with you all and get to know you better as well!
Thank you SO much for reading this. You're a total champ if you got to the end.
Talk to you later, in my next post!
Much love,
E.