Vitalii Starov - “My First Blog from Canada”
By: Vitalii Starov, Sports Management student at Humber College
Hello folks! My name is Vitalii Starov. I'm studying sports management at Humber. I am from Odessa, Ukraine, where I lived almost 17 years of my life. My native city is located in the south of Ukraine, at the coast of the Black Sea. It’s a beautiful city with amazing people, and I personally recommend you to visit it if you decide to go to Ukraine once.
I have always been into learning foreign languages and meeting new people. I am that kind of person that cannot always be at the same place. I constantly have to move on, take risks, and do crazy things. I also used to have a lot of energy as a kid, so my parents decided that it was necessary for me to release this energy through sports. My parents insisted on me taking karate classes when I was five. I have done karate and other kinds of martial arts for 12 years. It started as hobby, but then it grew up into something big for me. I started doing it professionally and brought it to a competitive level. In my next blog post I will tell you about the biggest accomplishment in sports so far...
Career choices are hard for a teenager. You start thinking of different possibilities that you have and you feel the pressure of making an important decision in your life. Therefore, it was hard for me to decide which path to follow. Fortunately, I had my relatives who helped me with it. They advised me to study something that I loved, something that would make me happy, so I would be able to pursue the job of my dreams. That’s how I decided to study sports management.My Humber professor once said: “I have been in a sports industry for 40 years and I haven’t worked a single day. Do you know why - because I love my job.” That’s exactly how I want my life to be. I don’t want to work; I want to enjoy what I do.And honestly, I have always dreamed of living and studying abroad, especially in such an amazing city as Toronto. I fell in love with it as soon as I came to Canada.
I will lie to you if I say that it was easy for me to settle down in Canada. It was hard to get used to new culture, new mentality and new people. Life in Canada is very different from my previous life in Ukraine. That’s why I needed a couple of months to get adjusted to everything. However, I was happy to meet a lot of interesting people and to make so many friends that I haven’t felt lonely yet. My life has changed drastically since I came to Canada. It’s more intensive, more interesting and more diverse if I can say that. I told myself that I would try to overcome my fears once I am in Canada. What kind of fears and how did I overcome them? I will write about it in my next posts…
