A young woman who searched for a business but found her purpose

One thing that is similar to all of us, who live in this world, is the time. Each day has 24 hours and it is up to each individual, how to use that time.

When we open the door in the morning and start the new day we breathe the air and see all the wonders of the world. I remember, when I was a child in the kindergarten, our teachers taught us months of the year, and the month October was colored with a white background – as if the winter had already begun.

I loved that, since it meant that I could go outside to ski or throw snowballs with my friends. For the past years, I have learnt to realize that the winter starts later, and that has gotten me to follow news about climate change. Our climate is changing, I have to face it. I don’t know that much about the topic, but luckily I got to meet a young student who knows more and taught me some interesting points.

Share your meal and discuss

I met Darya Chekalskaia through Startup Passion study programme, which is a program for students interested in how to make a business out of their ideas. When Darya came to the program, she had an idea which was to bring together people who enjoy sharing their meal and a social conversations. That’s why I decided to meet with Darya at a restaurant of course, but since we didn’t have enough time, we didn’t cook, but instead ate some great Sushi.

We talked with Darya about her experiences in Startup Passion, and how she evolved during the program, and got new ideas for her startup, but when the months went by, she noticed that besides passion for her business, she found a purpose from helping our planet.

I interviewed Darya for a podcast and we talked about how people could help preventing climate change. Darya answered at first that it’s good to question one’s own beliefs and thoughts and how important it is to think exactly, what an individual could do. She continued that it’s quite normal to choose sides on this topic, critically discuss, debate and share information all the time especially for children.

Cycling everywhere

Darya said she needed to change her lifeways when she learned more about climate change. Her biggest new habit is that she cycles everywhere nowadays. One of her dreams is to make cities more cycling friendly. In Kouvola we have been privileged to see the rise of a new startup called KaaKau Citybikes, whose orange bikes have been seen already a while, making Kouvola more cycling friendly.

Darya also gave couple of tips that anyone could start to do even today. She said we should use a stainless steel water bottle instead of using plastic ones and start using a bamboo toothbrush, which can be bought from Tokmanni. The most important thing is to invest money into something sustainable, she said at the end of the interview.

Everyone can make an impact

This is our planet where we live together, and everyone can make an impact. I learned from Darya’s interview to think about one easy step that anyone can take to prevent climate change.

First of all, don’t choose a too hard one. Choose one, that’s easy for you to do. You can start to cycle as Darya, or you can make up your own habit. Soon you will realize that you are part of the group making our planet suitable to live for our future generations.