In shortAccording to Olya Kamenskaya, she started as a line employee in the town of Kovrov and ended her career as a vice president, then began again in Miami. In Russia, she says, she had a name and a personal brand behind her; in America she’s just Olya, who doesn’t know how many kilograms are in a pound. In this episode she talks about the DMV, English and what changed once her titles were gone.
Olya Kamenskaya started out as a line employee at a large company in Kovrov, a small city in Russia’s Vladimir region, and ended her career as a vice president. In 2023 she flew to America for a beauty pageant, won, and brought the crown back to Russia. Today she lives in Miami. In Russia she had a name, money, a job and the personal brand everyone talks about, she says. In America she turned into “just Olya.”
The main idea of this episode: moving as an adult resets everything your life stood on. Olya doesn’t know a single immigrant for whom it was easy. But losing her titles turned out to be a relief too: being just Olya Kamenskaya, without a list of achievements, is, in her words, “absolute bliss.”
What is it like to start life over in another country as an adult?
Olya talks about it without gloss. When she arrived, she was left without everything her life had stood on: in Russia it was “much easier,” because she already had a name, finances, a job and a personal brand. In the US she is simply Olga, the way Americans say it, and there’s nothing behind that name.
And here I’m just Olya, Olga, as Americans say, and there’s simply nothing behind it.Watch this moment · 24:55
The word “migrant” is still hard for her to say, especially about herself. There were many tears, “crocodile tears,” she calls them, and meditations too. At the same time, she says that people who took the risk of changing countries are people “on a completely different level of IQ”: they’re ready to solve problems that would never have come up back home.
Listen, I don’t know a single immigrant for whom it was all easy.Watch this moment · 24:16
Кадр из выпуска «Без границ»What hits you first: daily life and bureaucracy
It starts with small things. Olya went to a store and couldn’t buy meat: she didn’t know how many kilograms are in a pound. Miles, kilometers, pounds, gallons: for someone raised on the metric system, it’s a new language. The second part of the shock, she says, is bureaucracy.
You start everything from zero. You don’t know what miles, kilometers, pounds, gallons are.Watch this moment · 25:18
In Russia, Olya says, a problem could be solved with a phone call. Here, as she puts it, there’s no one to call, it’s pointless, and a document has to pass every check. The habit of settling things by a call and skipping the line doesn’t work here.
Кадр из выпуска «Без границ»How did Olya get an American driver’s license, and what happened?
The first thing she ran into was the license. At the DMV, according to Olya, the clerk practically tossed the documents back at her: she had failed the exam. Olya walked out and burst into tears. She felt sorry for herself: twenty years behind the wheel, a respected person, and this.
Then she got angry. After that she did everything step by step.
Кадр из выпуска «Без границ»To the question “why did you move?” Olya still answers: she decided to test herself once more and find out what she’s capable of.
Can you live in the US without English?
Olya answers honestly: you can, with caveats. According to her, there are people who have lived here for 20 years and know only “bye-bye” and “good-bye.” That’s her own sore spot and growth zone. Once in Miami she was handed a microphone and asked to comment in English. She describes the feeling like this: as if she had swallowed a thousand needles.
Of course, you can survive with language, gestures, probably in any country in the world.Watch this moment · 1:01:50
You can survive, she adds, in a Russian-speaking circle or through interpreters. But Olya is for stepping out of that comfort zone: “if I want to live in this country, I have to learn to speak the language people speak here.” She and a friend often go to American events. Every time it’s scary: what if I don’t understand? But she goes.
Кадр из выпуска «Без границ»Why Miami: how did Olya choose her city?
She’s surprised by people who moved because their friends moved and said it was great there. Her story was different, and she didn’t set out to “conquer America” either. For many years she flew here for vacations, Miami became a hometown for her, and one day she allowed herself to stay.
She calls Miami a city that takes the masks off. It was here that she first allowed herself to give up designer things with logos: she feels completely comfortable in a $7 Walmart T-shirt and $80 Alo leggings, and she doesn’t feel she won’t be taken seriously because of it. And Chanel bags, she says, she sees far more of in Russia than here.
By the way, I’ve visited more than 80 countries, and America, and Miami in particular, is the only place where I wanted to stay.Watch this moment · 1:16:37
She’s just as direct about the climate: “it means a lot.” She loves New York and California, but in Miami, as she puts it, the sun shines 365 days a year.
Кадр из выпуска «Без границ»What does it mean to be “just Olya,” and why is it freeing?
For twenty years Olya told people who she was and, as she puts it, kept hanging ornaments on a little Christmas tree: and I’m also this, and I’m a vice president, and then more about what she was like. When she arrived in America, she realized she was just Olya Kamenskaya.
It’s as if you stepped out of high heels onto the asphalt in bare feet and felt the ground.Watch this moment · 1:03:45
Olya explains: in Russia it sometimes felt to her that people talked to her because they wanted something from her. Here nobody wants anything from her except conversation. When she was asked at one event to tell about herself in three sentences, she didn’t list her titles. She said she walks 10,000 steps a day. And she realized you can be an ordinary person and be loved for that too.
Кадр из выпуска «Без границ»Does the “Universe” help, or do you have to push through?
I asked Olya about the popular idea that if something doesn’t work out several times, the Universe isn’t pointing you there. Olya said she pushes through. She believes in the Universe and in signs, but thinks affirmations and meditation alone aren’t enough: you have to walk the path. Only a few win the lottery, she says, and most rich people got to their result because every day they “fought” with their tasks.
She has an observation about other people’s opinions too. When she brought the crown to Russia, people wrote hurtful things in the comments. And when she recently flew to Russia, acquaintances asked why she’d left. After a while they tell her: “you’re just so brave.” Her conclusion: behind other people’s judgment there is usually the lack of a result of their own.
What I take away from this conversation
This isn’t a step-by-step guide to moving. It’s a conversation about what happens inside you when you lose your familiar status. It has more feelings than algorithms, and that’s exactly why it’s worth watching for those who are only getting ready to move.
Profile: Olya Kamenskaya
You’ll find our whole conversation, including what I didn’t write about here (relationships, leadership, friendship in adulthood and the fear of “social death”), in the episode above; it’s in Russian, and YouTube can auto-translate the subtitles into English. The full conversation, word for word, is on the next page.
Kristina Samofal
Photo & Video Production