Kateryna Haiduk

"Life that lives is life successful, and success is the breath of its nostrils."
— Jack London, The Cruise of the Snark

Growing up as the youngest daughter of a pastor in an isolated village, I got away with a lot. Abusing a school-skipping permit, I educated myself through the works of London, Verne, Dickens, Scott, and others. To my misfortune, they instilled a spirit of curiosity, courage, and intellect - a hindrance in the world, though I don't think I ever managed to capture all three. My initial career choice was to be a pirate, but due to some well-known constraints, I had to settle for finance. Now that I have supplemented finance with travel, I guess I have become a pirate after all.

As London wrote, "Being alive, I want to see, and all the world is a bigger thing to see than one small town or valley". I duly followed, leaving at 16 to study in the USA. Then followed Latvia, France, Spain, the USA (didn't learn the lesson the first time), and Sweden. All in an attempt to be brave.

In my journey from a hearth-heated farm to downtown New York, I often try to make sense of my experiences through novels and history. I try to understand why the world is as it is and how people caught in the gears make sense of it. As for how to change it for the better? I have not quite gotten there yet, but it stays on the list.