Russian/Русский

I was hesitant to write this post because in my head 2016 was kind of a tough year.  Nonetheless, I decided to give it a try and look back at moments month by month. I discovered that 2016 was actually full of great things! It once again proves that your experience depends on your attitude, and while I did have some really emotionally difficult times this past year, I can honestly say that I made them seem worse than they should have been. Too much anxiety, too much self-doubt and negativity. It is painful to admit and it’s not all black and white but it is up to us how to live our lives and what to choose to focus on. For this post I chose to review the best memories and meaningful moments from 2016. It’s going to be a very long post.

Read More 2016 Year in Review

Mine

Russian/Русский

Earlier this week I celebrated my birthday! Nothing really feels different so far.  It’s funny how on your birthday you get to find out what impression you have on people based on their messages and comments. In Russian that is, in English most people rarely say much more than just a Happy Birthday (which is still appreciated) but in Russian it is common to wish a ton seasoned with couple of compliments. I noticed that most of the time, the things people wish have a lot to do with something they actually want for themselves.

Birthday-Girl-0033

I’ve got many really sweet messages, but it made me think once again how different is the way people see you and your life (these days with following culture being so present, it makes you think you know how everyone is living their life) from how you see it yourself. And I am not saying it is necessarily the opposite but of course people only see what we show them and while it still could be true, it’s definitely not all there is.

Read More Birthday Girl Confessions

Mine

Mine

Russian/Русский

Every year I write down my resolutions and goals, plans and wishes for the upcoming year. One of my favorite things to do before moving on is to find the list from the beginning of last year and see how I did, what came true, what didn’t, and to remember all the meaningful moments. It is crazy how fast the time flies and I truly hope to make every day, week, month as happy and memorable as possible. It’s all about little moments and below I want to share some of mine.

First time I wrote down my to-do list for the year was on New Year 2007; when I found that list in the end of the year I was shocked at how much of it came true and even more shocked at how important it is to clearly articulate what you want to accomplish. For example, I remember that I put something like “Start learning German”, I did start indeed but I didn’t get any good at it because eventually I dropped it. There were a few things similar to that and it definitely teaches me to be more specific and affirmative in my formulations.

For 2014 my list was kind of vague, things I wrote down were mostly general guidelines that I wanted to follow throughout the year plus some more specific goals and plans. Overall, I can say that 2014 has been a great year, many things that I wanted happened, some didn’t, and of course, it was not without surprises.

Read More Twenty Fourteen: Year in Review

Mine