From dream to reality!

Once again, hello my dear friends!

Today I decided to take some time to tell you about an important event (at least for me it was very important indeed) and at the same time I would love to keep this story written somewhere (for memory) and blog is the best place to do so! 🙂

I want to start my story by saying that on March 31, 2018, I was lucky enough to attend the performance of Nick Vujicic in St. Petersburg! As Wikipedia states: “He is an Australian Christian evangelist and motivational speaker born with tetra-amelia syndrome, a rare disorder (called phocomelia) characterized by the absence of arms and legs.“My mission is to help people find their way in life,” he says ”(c). So, it seems to me, he showed me my way, or rather, another direction that I find interesting and which I would like to do besides other thousands that I already have))

That day I left his performance very inspired knowing what I wanted to do. I was full of determination, ideas and inner fire. The fact is that I have traveled the world and whenever I began to talk about my life, the miracles that took places here and there, my ideas and aspirations, people immediately stopped doing what they were busy with and started to listen to me, I saw the light in their eyes.My students in South Korea told me that I was sent to them by fate, in France people told me that they had never met such a motivating person (even if this is far from true). Nevertheless, I know that by my example I can “charge” everything and everyone around, and so I realized that I would like to share my stories and advice with others. And all of a sudden less than a year from that day my good old friend sent me a message on Facebook with a proposal to speak in Moscow. This girl’s name is Elena Sedova. She does everything: she is a singer, a presenter, a member of the Russian Union of Journalists, a kind of producer, a radio guest, and much, much more. Of course, I was very glad that the Universe heard my desires and reacts to them in such a quick way! It’s interesting that we hadn’t communicated with Elena for several years and then suddenly there was an offer from her site to mine that could not be refused. It was decided that from now on Moscow was on the list of my plans for 2019 and then, postponing for a long time, finding reasons to do it later, the date was chosen – June 15, 2019!

(Elena made this poster and the photo was taken by Sergey Sirotin)

I was given a cinema-hall in the Travel-library in Moscow, which was very nice! By the way, the director of the library is a very sweet, pleasant, polite lady. I still remain grateful to her for the opportunity to speak at such a library. This is very symbolic, because travel is my whole life! I didn’t even know that the library of Travel exists!

I must say that I began to be afraid and have terrible expectations of the upcoming event in early May, long before the X-day! Sometimes I asked myself a question – why do I need all this, what did I subscribe to, but as I read somewhere “Go where it’s scary. There you will find yourself “or something like that. In any case, I believe that we become stronger while overcoming our fears, there is more self-esteem and faith in ourselves after all. Moreover, it was my dream to speak out loud … There was no way back.

Sapsan train took me to Moscow the day before the performance. Therefore, I was able to meet with Elena (the leader and organizer of the event), discuss all the details and I also had a wonderful time with my mother, who had flown specially for this time to the capital. Her support was important to me and I had missed her a lot.

Actually there were some sad things too. I am quite a sociable person and I have many friends – acquaintances thereforeI invited almost everyone I knew in Moscow. But on Saturday (June 15) it turned out that one got sick, another got sick, the third was at work, the fourth was at school, the fifth got the date mixed up, the sixth … well, I just kept reading messages like “Natash, forgive me, really wanted to see you, support you BUT … ” If I received only one or a couple of messages like that but I had almost all of my invox of such news. On the other hand I was so happy to see when some people texted to me: “I’m with you! I will come! See you soon” and someone wrote that he could not wait for 17:00 (the beginning of the event). There was even a person who spent 2 hours on the way to the library and 2 hours back! This is a hero indeed! I also had a girl from Argentina (who speaks Russian) at my presentation (in the audience).

Did I get upset that my friends, acquaintances did not come? At first, Yes, and very much. But then I realized that I did it for those who wanted to travel, learn about some life hacks, learn how you can quickly start speaking foreign languages and much more. If a person did not come, it means that he/she simply did not need this information. Perhaps he (she) him/herself knows everything…therefore, I believe that on June the 15th there were only those to whom it was interesting and useful, and I am grateful to everyone who gave me as much as 2 hours (not counting theway to the library) and the information I wanted to convey. And especially it was very nice to get feedback after the performance. I already know that some people use my advice and that’s great! So it was for a very good purpose!

This photo was taken when almost everyone gone (here I am with my friends though I don’t know the lady with a dark blue dress). And on the right side from me is Elena.

Here you can see Dinara Aidakeena – the director of the place (with the grey dress).

As for the performance itself, I felt very comfortable – I was sitting on the armchair, I was provided with a microphone, I did not have to shout worrying that people won’t hear me well. I was very relaxed, talking about what I know well – about my life))) there were some very close people in the hall and of course, it gave me strength and energy. So, except for the fact that after 1.5 hours of communication, I began to wheeze, otherwise everything was very calm, sometimes fun (humor is my everything) and completely natural.

I prepared a presentation in Power Point and all my words and stories were backed up with pictures, photos and jokes. I talked about England, about how I was offered a place in the prestigious university as an exception, why I left this university in my beloved London, the way I danced at the Paralympic Games in London,my winning in a design competition in America, about French and Italian, about finding work abroad and much more.

I hope this was not my last talk. And, perhaps, soon I can be heard on one of the Moscow radio.

And since all those who did not come to see and hear me speaking they began to send me messages like “How did it go?” I answered the first 4 people, and then decided that I would better write a blog article which I am doing right now))

Summing up, I can say that there were less people than I expected and wanted to see but there were wonderful people so the quantity didn’t matter but the quality! By the way, there was a nice young man who left my presentation right in the middle. It was hard for me not to pay attention to it and continue talking, but who knows, maybe something happened in his life, or he was in a hurry to attend Muse concert, which took place that very same day in Moscow.

I felt absolutely comfortable and everything went great! I am grateful to my fried Elena Sedova, the library, every listener and my life of course!

Best wishes to you all!