With resilience and curiosity, grade 12 student Eliya T. has embraced change from moving countries and discovering her identity through music. She recently reflected on her journey, background, and how playing guitar has become both a passion and a source of strength in her life.
What follows is Eliya’s story, in her own words:
“I don’t have a father, but my mom got a sperm donation, so I was, like, an IVF (In vitro fertilization) baby. I never really felt the empty space of not having a father since that’s how I’ve been raised my whole life. So it’s very natural to me living with a single mom. Also, the fact that my mom is a very powerful woman definitely contributed to that. And to me, my mom has taken the role of two parents and so I never felt the need for a dad. Moreover, I have two older brothers that I would say maybe can resemble some characteristics of fathers. Like, they can get protective and they help me a lot even with little things like killing a spider in my room. So, growing up, the house never felt empty or like it was missing something, because I think that I was blessed with a very brave mom and brothers that cared for me a lot.
I think definitely moving to a different country was a challenge. Especially at the age that I was, transferring into high school was a major change for me. I already had my best friends, and it was very different. Moving from Israel, where it was not an international environment, to Bucharest, where I had to just find who I truly am. Also, the school curriculum was very different in terms of studying. It took me a long time to adapt, and I think it definitely shaped the way I am as a person right now. I really like the initiatives in this school. I think that our school gives opportunities to travel to be able to play, like doing CEESA Rock Band. I wouldn’t be able to do that if I was in Israel right now.
I started playing classical guitar at first, and honestly the funny thing is I kept playing until now. Obviously I had breaks and stuff. I didn’t play fully for the whole time, but I always had the same guitar teacher. He taught me acoustic guitar, a little bit of bass and electric guitar. So he’s been with me for a long time, and inspired me a lot. I remember last year during the final exams in grade 11, I used to play just to manage stress and suddenly became really passionate, and I really wanted to play all the time because it was allowing me to have a calm space, a relaxing time. I think there are many benefits to playing an instrument. I was talking to my mom the other day, and she said that she wished she could have played an instrument, or like, even singing, you know. I think it taught me patience, and also, there was a time where I studied music theory, and it was very, very hard, but it’s also very interesting. So it taught me to invest in something I wouldn’t otherwise invest in, or I wouldn’t explore.
I also think of [Science teacher] Seamus O’Hanlon for my biology class as an inspiration. Every single class he surprises me because we ask him random questions, and he just always knows the answer. He’s just very well educated on biology. He is one of my role models and someone that I really admire. I want to be a neuroscientist or neurologist.
As a senior, one advice I would give to my younger self would be: Don’t worry as much. I feel like school at that time was so unimportant and I used to make small problems feel much bigger in my head and forgot to enjoy what I was doing. I think I was too worried about school even though it really wasn’t that important and maybe sacrificed other things that I could have done with my time.
