About me

Hello dear reader,

My name is Alissa, and I am glad that you jump on this page to get to know me better.

My story begins from escaping the country of birth (Russia) to a very wonderful country, that I call my home – Finland. Since childhood, when my family made road trips to Finland, I felt like it is a place to be, and I can surely say that dreams do come true!

I moved out right after school at the age of 17, from a city of 6 million people to a small town with 30K population. What a change! From a growling city with its noisy public transportation and busy lifestyle to peaceful village, where the only suitable way of moving from A to B was walking or biking. But I felt in love, and mainly I understood the main thing that I was missing – that endless nature all around.

Since then, the flow of life dynamically put everything to their places: I have changed the cities, all my social circles and ended up in Tampere, known as Sauna Capital of the World. Indeed, the city is equipped with a significant number of public saunas, accounting more than 50 public saunas in the region. In Tampere, I started my academic journey and in 2024, I graduated as the PhD in Interactive Technology.

In Tampere, I also started a family. Shiba-Inu Ruta is my first deeply loved family member and my loyal friend for about 7 years. Then we met Dave, the positive burst of energy who changed my life upside down. Our second dog, Kira, joined us about 3 years ago. Then life flow escalated, and we welcomed our first daughter, Emilia in May 2023. In May 2025 we are expecting another family member to jump on-board.

Now, when you know the composition of my family and a bit of my background, I believe it would be easier to understand what I am about to say.

My life story is not simple – I no longer belong to the culture of origin, and I will never fully integrate into Finnish culture, no matter how hard I try. Also, being Russian is not easy in modern world, and the terrible war gifted me several identity crises, a long process when you need to split the understanding of your own self, roots and culture from the ruling government influence.

Apart from the immigration challenges, I have encountered toxic relationships, misconception of friendship, personal development barriers and issues with self-understanding (as we all do). To address this part of my life battle, I have dived into psychology and self-therapy, and it changed all my perseption of life and the world around us. And I truly believe that changes start from us.

Finally, being a mother is a cherry on the pie of my life in all the senses – especially when you have two amazing, but super stubborn dogs. I am grateful for everything I have, since it made me stronger, more conscious and tolerant. I am not going to pretend to have a perfect life or that I understood the ground truth of this world, no. I stand for showing the reality and expressing real things, would they be bad or good.

This is the place where the concept of BALANCE is entering the stage. Balance is a foundation for a happy life. Balance is the state of stability or equilibrium, where different elements are in the correct proportions or harmony.

[to be continued…]