I began writing poetry and short stories from essentially the time I learned how to read and write, when I was five years old. I pursued creative writing somewhat seriously in my teens and early twenties, but my first love was always music. Although I had been singing all my life, I never knew how to play an instrument, and I always wanted to learn the piano. So at age 20 or 21, I bought a keyboard and began to teach myself to play. A few months later I enrolled in classical lessons at a the local community college. Shortly after I began lessons, I had a lightbulb moment, dropped all my other life plans, and began working toward a music degree in classical piano. Soon I went back to college to pursue that degree, which I successfully completed in my late twenties. For most of my twenties and thirties I worked as a freelance gigging musician and private music instructor. I eventually went back to school for my Master’s degree; today I am a general music teacher at a K-8 school in Chicago.
Because I was so focused on my education, music career, and all life’s other obligations, I wasn’t free to pursue my passion for writing for many years. I always knew that I would return to writing when the time was right. It has been my New Year’s resolution for the past four years to start a blog, and so this January, here I am.
My name is Lily Djurakov. I am a woman in my mid-thirties — unmarried, no kids; I just moved to downtown Chicago last summer. I’ve had some unique emotional, spiritual, and general life experiences that you may find you can relate to. I’m just here to share my personal experiences and observations about life and the world in general, and of course share my passion for creative writing. I will also be sharing audio and video of my musical performances, including original works. Perhaps this blog doesn’t quite fit in with our modern world of memes, hashtags, character limits, and deceptive photo filters, but it’s something that’s sincerely me, and has always been me. I’ve lived in two worlds since as long as I can remember — the world that we know and can see, and the world that I prefer — the one where ideas, philosophies, art, stories, and magic are born. You can call it my imagination, but this is the place where the music, the writing, and the spirit come from. It’s a place we’re often discouraged from being in touch with, especially today. We are so currently fixated on the tangible, material world — that which we can see or hold in our hands. Our obsession with the surface has inflated to immense proportions, and so here is a place I can joyfully dwell beneath that surface.
I hope to begin a dialogue with you, and I encourage any and all of your comments! Feel free to contact me at lily@beneaththesurfaceblog.com. I’d love to hear from you. Thank you for visiting — may you find something beneath the surface to take with you above.
