Since childhood I’ve always been fascinated with writing stories; I had a blog, a diary, and even some sketchbooks full of creatures I tried to imagine. All of these I had been too afraid to share publicly for a long time. That is, until I was old enough to realize it is really best for everyone if I did share them. Well, maybe not the diary..

So now I own a 7-year-old blog, which I very much enjoy writing. In January 2022 it has 2272 followers, and my last entry was read 45.000 times in the first 12 hours. The most viewed article of mine was read by 212k people.

I feel quite proud to have accomplished that, even though it might be a tiny blog. And here’s the thing: I never tried writing in English before. Instead, I wrote and still am writing using (one of) my mother tongue(s). Actually, I was doing a small research project for the university, and stumbled upon this blockchain-based information storage and the more I read, the more excited I got. This tiny research is my very first attempt to put a text in English together, and I am very excited to start this new chapter of my writing possibilities with you, dear reader.

Here a short autobiography:

I was born in Ukraine, having a strict childhood, my grandparents raised me to be a child with a bright future. I soon hated the idea of staying in this country, - so I moved to Israel when I was 15. My mother went with me. I usually do not enjoy discussing anything that came before I turned 15. My childhood wasn’t the definition of ‘‘happy’’ and I don’t feel any connection to anything that has to do with Ukraine. If anything - I am rather - for lack of a better word - ashamed for even having to mention it.

In Israel I was spending a truly happy time: reading a lot, socializing, learning, playing. I went to a boarding school where I learned Hebrew, music and so many other things. Afterwards I had to go to a military (voluntarily, of course), and you would see me writing about it in the nearest future.

Then I moved again, this time to Berlin. It was also the fifth language I wanted to make my own. Since I was pretty motivated for the challenge and by then had developed a knack for languages, I got my C1 certificate after 1 year of learning German. I applied for a university here and started studying, working weekends .. until I became ill.

Acute polymorphic psychotic disorder as a first diagnosis, later changed to schizoaffective disorder (depressive type) and then changed again to paranoid schizophrenia and depression. Since then this illness has been accompanying me in my life; there hasn’t been a day it wouldn’t affect me in some way. I am going to write a lot about it, there is a lot I want to tell.

There might also be random topics, to some extent at least. Things that interest me, Science, Tech, Art I do or even some fictive stories. Anything, really, that gets into my mind and quite often wants to stay.

Let me know about the topics that you are likely to get hooked on and would like me to tell you about first.

Stay healthy, take care of yourself.

Yours, Exinia.