"Sometimes it’s just a title that makes you take the order. It challenges me, it intrigues me, or there is a problem that needs to be looked at in a different way."
To better familiarize our users with our team and make us closer, we decided to open a new blog section where we will interview our employees. We want to show you that EduBirdie is not just a website. We are a family, a single organism, and a whole team full of bright and enthralling personalities.
Disclaimer: For privacy reasons, EduBirdie is not allowed to disclose the identity of our users as well as our authors. It doesn’t make Kristine.255’s story any less engaging though!
Kristine.255
On personal life
What kind of music do you like?
I like Chillstep and Pop Rock. Chillstep is something I enjoy in the background to relax while I go about my day, whereas Pop Rock makes me feel happy with its upbeat music and catchy lyrics.
What’s your favorite quote?
“I’d rather chase the sun than wait for it” (Markus Zusak)..
What’s your favorite movie/TV show?
My favourite TV show is Friends that aired from 1994 to 2004. I was too young to watch it when it aired, but I binge-watched it when I was in college. So far, I have watched it 3 times, and it still cheers me up.
On professional experience
What do you like about your job and being a writer the most?
Being a writer helps me learn something new every day. I started writing as a career when I was a master’s student in 2014, and at that time my knowledge was limited to the field of Management Sciences and Literature. I just started to write essays for money in these fields. Today, after 8 years of being a professional writer, I can write in a variety of subjects because my job challenges me to understand scientific and social phenomena using different perspectives that different subjects provide. I continue to grow as a student and as a person, which is why being a writer is the best job I have ever had.
What do you seek in your clients?
I seek versatility in my clients because I want to work on a variety of subjects. Sometimes, I guess it would be great if my clients can brainstorm with me to come up with creative ideas to write about in a specific field of study.
What is the most interesting topic you had to write a paper on?
The most interesting topic I worked on was a Sociology paper, in which a student had to write a vignette for four weeks about his high school experiences. This topic made me go through my high school experiences and reflect on their causes and consequences, leading me to understand myself in a better way.
Let's start with you just telling a bit about yourself, and then I’ll move on to some of the specific questions.
Okay, no problem. I like writing and I’ve been an academic writer for almost 8 years now. I’ve done a Masters in Business Administration and I intend to pursue a PhD which I almost got admissioned before COVID, but then things did not happen the right way.
In one of the questions before the interview, you said that you had to travel a lot and move a lot during your childhood. Can you tell us why and where?
Sure. Actually, my father was a consultant architecture engineer. So, his job would take him to places, and I would move along with him. I’ve been to Azerbaijan, Turkey, Austria, Italy, Germany, Greece, Emirates, Singapore, Thailand, Qatar. Maybe more, but that’s all I can recall right now.
You must have changed a lot of schools during that time.
Yes, I’ve always been an international student, and that’s why I always tried to find refuge in books. That’s how I got into reading. I knew books could be my friends no matter where I was despite any cultural or social changes.
What do you read?
Fantasy mostly.
Okay, what kind of fantasy?
I’m a huge fan of Harry Potter and Tolkien, the Lord of the Rings. Recently I’ve been into this series the Lunar Chronicles. It’s a sci-fi. I’m generally fascinated with the authors and how they come up with these worlds, how they make it look real for us. We can interpret these books in so many ways and still relate to them. So I really like fiction. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah Maas is also one of my favorites.
Did you study in English during all that time?
Sure, I was an international student and it would have been hard for me to adjust to all these different languages.
But how many languages do you speak in general?
I can speak a little Persian. I learned Italian when I was at school but I was very young. I can still understand it but I may have a little trouble in conversation. I speak a little bit Arabic, so I can ask for directions, do small talk, I can survive there. And English, obviously.
So all the moving brought you to reading, but what actually brought you into writing? Did you write something for yourself?
I started as a creative writer, and that’s what brought me to academic writing later on. The thing that actually got me into writing was… When I was in college, there was an intercollege essay writing competition. I took second place in that. That’s how I developed interest in writing. I understood that my actual strength lies in writing.
What were you writing as a creative writer?
After highschool, I used to write creative stories for a Facebook page. They were little horror stories or children stories. I also used to write poems and some fan fiction. Mostly about Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. So, my writing career started as a hobby but then I realized I should do something that helps me learn, and that’s how I got into academic writing.
You enjoy it now, do you? It’s your main job, right?
Yes.
How do you usually pick your topics and what is that you like to write about the most?
I like to write social works. It intrigues me. It feels good to write about some problems that are the same in most places despite the cultural differences. I like to find research and thoughts on these problems, so I can think of and provide some possible solutions. Sometimes it’s just a title that makes you take the order. It challenges me, it intrigues me, or there is a problem that needs to be looked at in a different way.
Do you ever take something that you are not that well familiar with just to, as you said, challenge yourself? Especially something that is not really connected to your education.
Once I took a job where I was required not only to write web content but develop a website using WordPress. This was the time when I challenged myself to do something completely different from what I’ve been doing as an academic writer. Because usually when we are writing, we know the outline, we know the subject, we know the title, and we just start writing. But this was challenging, and it was very creative and intriguing. I was putting all of my efforts into thinking of color schemes, thinking about where people would be looking. By the time the project was over, I learned how to make a website, an actual functioning website, and I got compensated for it.
Considering it all together, now being a professional writer for almost 8 years, have you ever thought or had this ambition like, “I will write my own book someday?”
Yes! I have a book, I’m working on a book. It’s only one chapter, but I have an outline and characters.
Wow, can you share some details or what is the story about if that’s okay with you?
No problem. So, this book is about a painter who just moved to Paris. He has a dream of becoming a great artist. He is very ambitious and he is already successful, but he wants to create something for people to remember him by. Now he wants to paint a portrait of the most beautiful woman anyone has ever seen. That’s what the main story revolves around.
Tell a bit about your other hobbies. What do you like to do in your free time?
I really like painting. I make portraits and landscapes. I started when I was in middle school. My works weren’t really paintings back then, but that was when I started to understand colors and textures. After high school I got really into charcoal and pencil drawing. I was fascinated because I was creating something artistic using only basic supplies. Now, it’s only getting better and better. I use oil and study new painting techniques.
A glance into urban life. (Painting courtesy of Kristine.255)
How does your lifestyle and all your hobbies influence your writing?
When I travel I meet different types of people from different cultures, from different ethnicities. And some of them are my really good friends. They tell me stories from their cultures. I listen to their folk music. Their tradition also influences me, and I want to learn more about them. So when I’m writing anything about culture or when I have to write from the perspective of a different country, I can relate and think from their perspective. I think it gives a personal touch of experience that I had in all these countries.
Is there any culture or country that you admire the most or the one you want to see the most?
Yes, I would love to go to London. Not because it's the UK and I want to see the Queen’s palace or something. Of course, I would love to see that but if you remember there is this author Arthur Conan Doyle. He wrote the Sherlock Holmes. And there is a museum right in his old apartment or near it, I don’t know, but I would love to go there. I would also love to go to New Zealand because that’s where they filmed the most part of the Lord of the Rings, the Shire area.
Here's to the Hope for the other half! (Painting courtesy of Kristine.255)
