Hello Steemians!

My name is Ana, and I am going to write about different things related to my life. I had some interesting things happening to me that I would like to share, hopefully my experiences and conclusions might help someone or at least be entertaining.

Growing up in '90s in Serbia was interesting experience; wars, hyperinflation, dictatorship, sanctions, and global changes created weird mix in everyday life. Thanks to hyperinflation we have been poor billionaires. The value of currency was changing each day, and sometimes even during the day. I remember that my pocket money for the day was worthless the next day. So each day I had to spend it before it loses its value. Sanctions brought many smuggled goods on the streets. Shops where empty. It was spooky to see all those supermarket shelves with nothing on them, one row after another. In the same time globalization was in full swing outside of our borders. It affected us too. We wanted brands like Reebok and Nike, we wanted to eat in McDonald's, and to play on Sega and Gameboy.

For many kids that was hard to get, their parents have been struggling for survival. That was the first time in my life when I started noticing inequality among children. Until that point I was brought up in spirit of old ideas left over from communism and socialism, that all people should be treated equally. For many years I just couldn't understand why would anyone behave differently in that sense. I just couldn't judge people based on their outside qualities like brand of clothes they wear, or their wealth. For me, the only important thing was personality. Also I have to admit I was very naive, obviously. I couldn't understand why would someone be mean to others without apparent reason. I am glad now that I learned these lessons early in life, that I had to deal with mean kids. From these experiences I learned a lot, it wasn't pleasant tho, but we tend to learn more from difficulties in life.

Because we moved often, I changed three elementary schools. Back then we only had public schools. When we moved for the first time, it was big change for me. We moved from suburbs to downtown area, and from a house to an apartment. I lost my childhood friends, and I felt that my roots are pulled out. It seems to me that there are people who never move and those who always move. I guess once your roots are pulled out, it is much harder to settle again. Also I have feeling that this event increased my desire for exploration. After I managed to overcome my first fears and struggles, I felt more open and free to travel, meet new people and make new friends. Later in my teenage years, I got into extreme in this sense.

I got into underground scene, and spend couple of years constantly traveling to concerts and events, or just visiting friends I met on my travelings. It was intense period, and I have to say I started very early, when I was just 13 years old. One 'advantage' of living in Serbia back then was that nobody ever asked for ID to enter clubs or buy drinks. Also we had our ways to evade ticket checks on train so we could travel mostly for free. We used to hitchhike too. After political changes in year 2000, I decided to change my life and to devote my time to developing my art skills. I finally got into design high school, where my love for photography started blooming.
For most of my life I believed I should only be behind the camera, I thought I am not a good model. But recently I discovered that I can be a good model too. :) I am still getting used to that, so there will be more photos in the future.

For everyone who read the whole text, here is a cat photo! :)