Irina's story

"This is going to sound really cheesy, but my number one aspiration is to do something that makes me happy."

This is going to sound really cheesy, but my number one aspiration is to do something that makes me happy. I haven’t chosen a subject that has an obvious career path, but I feel like it will open up opportunities to do the things that make me happy. My main goals in life are to travel as much as I can and to make as much art as I can, and see how it goes!

This summer I’m going to Bali as part of a summer school provided by my course. I’m really excited – we’re going to be studying performance practices in Balinese culture, like gamelan playing. We’ve been studying it at Essex, but actually seeing it in its native Bali will be a much better way of understanding the cultural perspective. We’re going to be practising these art forms with actual Balinese practitioners. There’s another summer school in Moscow, and next year, all being well, I’m planning to go to that one too.

I’m really grateful that my parents supported me and pushed me to fulfil my dreams. My parents don’t do anything related to the arts, but they still wanted me to do what I wanted to do. They’re really inspirational people, very hardworking, and they’re so open to learning about all sorts of things, which has really influenced me.

I think my biggest accomplishment is getting here, to be fair! It was a dream of mine for a long time. Since getting here I’ve started stacking up smaller achievements on top of each other, and I feel like I’m learning so much, but getting in, that was the thing that pushed me further.