when did you feel most alive in your career?

svitlana is figuring her craft and stitch in the ass

“So, Svitlana, what do you want?” her dad asked while looking at acceptance letters from two Ukrainian universities, one to study econ and the other to do computer science.¹

“Ah, unsure. i guess econ is more suitable for me since i am a girl?” she replied despite loving math and computers.

“Yup! Good call,” her dad replied, as a true gender-conforming Soviet-raised man.

So, for the next two years, Svitlana embraced the role of an 💸Econ Girl💸. Her profs kept saying that she is just a rational unit who goes about the world maximizing pleasure per dollar, and so soon she lost interest in the school and found other places to entertain herself.

One such place was a volunteering organization European Youth Parliament, aka EYP. In this org, a bunch of youngsters form teams and play politicians to feed their intellectual hunger and build cross-cultural harmony. She joined this org as a Delegate, aka team participant, and traveled around Europe, discussing topics like gentrification, the Internet of Things, and income inequality.

In Ukraine, we say one has шило в задниці, or a stitch in the ass, to describe someone with lots of energy. Svitlana is an example of such a being.

The stitch was stitching, and so she took on another role, the role of a Chairperson. Her responsibilities now included leading teams through brainstorming, problem-solving, and co-creating Resolution Docs. Despite the struggle and massive social anxiety, she loved doing it. Her caring attitude fostered authentic relationships, and she found herself to be great at shifting and commanding energy in the room.

The stitch kept stitching, and so when the opportunity to make some $$ came in, she jumped on it. She taught English to a small class of primary school kids IRL, making three dollars per hour — hella a lot.

Soon, her boss, seeing her talent and the financial advantage of employing an underaged worker, upgraded her to teaching business English. It wasn’t easy to fake having a bachelor’s degree in linguistics while crumbling in anxiety as a seventeen-year-old, but she also didn’t have much agentic awareness so she pushed through it.

This was an econ-phase of her life, aka the time when Svitlana felt most alive.

Okay, dear friends, what can we learn from this econ-uni phase of Svitlana? Her hope is to bring some of this aliveness into her current career/craft.

1. First, she surprisingly can do many things at once. Multitasker, multi-jober, or whatever you call it.

2. Second, she loves working with people. She loves building deep relationships and guiding people through solving ~ creation ~ thinking.

3. Third, she might have a secret skill of being good at faking. It feels kinda dangerous, but woah, thank elves, she is also kind and has no intention to deceive or manipulate beings.

4. Fourth, Lviv National University gets a 5 on study-volunteer balance.

5. Fifth, the Universe gifted her with lots of energy!

6. Sixth, she loves training and teaching.

7. __

And how can she remix some of those alive vibes in her current career craft?

1. Unlike American universities, in Ukraine, you gotta commit to a pre-defined set of classes and majors at the moment of enrollment.