Last Thursday, I had the wonderful opportunity to chat with our newest blogger of the month, Madina Shaykhutdinova! Since joining Youth Are Awesome in August 2017, Madina has contributed a wide array of posts like thoughtful reviews, poems, and advice pieces for the typical student— both humorous and insightful! The two of us met at Higher Ground Cafe’s Capitol Hill location, where we talked about her personal life, participation on YAA, and her plans for the future over hot chocolate and tea.
Madina is currently finishing grade 11 at William Aberhart High School and has maintained a busy schedule this semester, balancing courses with school and extracurricular commitments; in fact, she had just finished writing her mathematics final exam before meeting with me (I know I definitely wouldn’t have had the capacity left in my brain to have an interview!).
Madina’s primary commitments outside of class are her volunteering endeavours with Youth Central and her impressive list of music involvements. Band is her favourite subject, as she is on her school’s ensemble, symphonic, and jazz band, having played the flute since grade 7. Music plays a large role in Madina’s life, and she also recently finished her Grade 10 piano exam with the Royal Conservatory of Music. Now that her piano exam is over, Madina is excited that she can play her favourite pieces that come from the Romantic Era, from composers like Franz Liszt and Chopin. Aside from classical music, Madina also enjoys listening to Indie Folk music from artists like Priscilla Ahn and White Horse. Madina recently showcased her musical talent on the piano at YAA’s Open Mic Night Fundraiser, Constellation— it was fantastic!
Madina’s other talents include languages. She is fluent in English and Russian while enrolled in her school’s French Immersion program, and she is also learning Spanish and Japanese! In terms of other entertainment, Madina’s favourite movies are Home Alone (just the first and second one!) and the Harry Potter series stands as her favourite book series. Despite her extensive endeavours in music and language, Madina is planning on pursuing further studies at the University of Alberta or University of Calgary, specializing in either mechanical or biomedical engineering.
Madina has been a part of Youth Are Awesome since August 2017, when she joined after Richard, a previous member of YAA and current YVC Team Leader, encouraged her to join during a volunteer project and the rest is history: “it sounded interesting, so I decided to join”. Since then, Madina has been a dedicated blogger who posts diligently on a wide variety of topics that impart advice for the typical student, teach readers something new, or affect readers with her original creative writing pieces. In light of all of her posts, Madina’s favourite is one she wrote two months ago: her reviews of various banana bread recipes! Madina identifies this post as her favourite one to write because although it took a lot of work, she was able to combine her love for banana bread with her commitment to Youth Are Awesome, and effectively inform readers about the best recipes— although she did learn that “making three banana breads in one day is too much”! Check it out if you haven’t read it yet and see the amount of dedication put into this unique post!
In terms of the sources of inspiration for her writing, Madina admits that her writing comes rather sporadically but draws from her personal life in aspects like school — “[she] just writes whatever is on [her] mind”, which is perhaps why her posts feel natural to read and often mention issues constantly faced by students, like stress and failure. Madina herself identifies her style of writing as casual and conversational. Madina was initially surprised at the amount of advice that she imparts in her posts when I first mentioned it, but if you look at her posts, Madina is capable of spurring her thoughtful ideas into simple but eloquent expression.
Since Madina’s posts frequently focus on student work ethic, I was curious if Madina has her own struggles with procrastination over her courseload. Madina replied immediately with a single word: “Absolutely”. When I asked Madina if she had any role models in her life, Madina identified anyone who possess excellent time management skills; Madina admitted that her posts are also written to encourage herself to be more cognizant of her habits and use some of her own advice. She said, “I actually haven’t really figured out how to manage my time. This semester I had too much on my plate so going forward, I won’t be taking on as many commitments.” Despite these claims of not having personally mastered time management strategies, I think that is a piece of advice in of itself: although it may be difficult, sometimes one has to give up certain commitments (the “quality over quantity” mindset). I think that statement reflects Madina’s discerning and introspective personality that she emulates in her posts.
“It’s easy to complete work that is of a mediocre quality, not to the best of your ability. But what is the point in settling for inadequacy? What are you learning this way? “
-From Why You Should Do Your Best
As previously mentioned, Madina often draws from her own personal interests to write critical reviews like Some Frustrations About Learning and Thoughts on Duolingo. However, Madina also posts her own poems, which became a more dedicated endeavour once she joined YAA. Although Madina said that writing poetry was something she started for YAA, she is capable of evoking emotion through numerous techniques like her effective usage of repetition in Nervous or rhetorical questioning in Hero. Failure, Madina’s most recent published poetry piece, is also her favourite; it certainly follows the trend of her topical posts for youth.
“Why would you look to the dark and uncertain future / When hindsight is 20/20? / Because dwelling on the past doesn’t do anything.”
-From Failure
Madina has cherished her experience with YAA so far, and she highlights the social aspect of being part of the committee: “Through YAA, I’ve met people from different parts of the city that I wouldn’t have otherwise. Like that fundraiser, I got to see what different youth had to offer.” As for her future involvement with YAA, Madina hopes to write more quality posts that require time, research, and deeper reflection, which contrast with some of her current “quick-read” posts. However, Madina noted the importance of “making sure [she] enjoys what [she’s] writing.”, we can continue to expect Madina’s humorous and poignant takes on whimsical musical instruments and procrastination! As someone with a packed schedule and was encouraged by a previous YAA alumnus to take on blogging, Madina had a message for any potential future bloggers who are on the fence to join:
“Just do it. It isn’t a huge time commitment and the schedule is extremely flexible, so you’ll always be able to find time to write about something you’re passionate about.”
At the conclusion of our interview, I asked Madina if she had any additional advice that she wanted to impart to readers, and she immediately replied with something practical: “stay hydrated”. She then added, “self-deprecating thoughts are a source of stress that one can control”. So dear readers, believe in your own capabilities to keep off that unnecessary stress and drink your fluids!
I would like to thank Madina for brightening my day with that interview on that overcast afternoon, and for continually contributing her insight to Youth Are Awesome on a wide variety of topics. Congratulations once again for being selected as June’s Blogger of the Month!