Who am I? Who is Nikita?

Growing up in New England and surrounded by the changing seasons was blissful. I have so many warm memories of my childhood. I grew up in a very loving home.

My small and tight-knit family and I did everything together, growing up I didn't have many friends, my family were my best friends and still are.

A few of my favorite memories involve movie nights, cooking and baking, dancing, board games, and we loved traveling and exploring new places. One of my favorite continents being South America and their beautiful culture.

I also grew up as a middle child, and with that came the psychological complexities of the middle child, but I like to think that I came out of that mentally stronger and a true peace keeper.

My older sister being an over achiever, an overall amazing athlete and scholar it was hard to compare, and my young brother being also a natural athlete, the baby of the house, and only son, was even harder to compete for attention with.

While my siblings were athletic and intellectuals, I found myself being the natural comedian that I am, if not natural, I tried pretty damn hard to be funny. I stayed up late at night alone in front of the TV watching stand-up comedy, getting new material, and just laughing for the sake of laughing. While my sister shined on the tennis and basketball courts and in the classroom, my brother shined on the sport fields, and I shined my best at the dinner table, that was my open mic time.

It wasn't all fun and jokes, I connected to art, drawing, clay, and creating with my hands. I loved writing journals that were filled to the brim with poems, secrets and songs I wrote. Painting and drawing were my passion. I have sketchbooks, upon sketchbooks of drawings and paintings.

I also felt deeply connected to another art; Martial Arts. As a young girl when I wasn't staying up till 3 AM laughing in front of the TV listening to comedians, I was drawn to Martial Art movies with Bruce Lee, Jet Li, Jean Claude Van Damme, and Cynthia Rothrock, to name a few. I used my movie training out at recess, and got detention a few times when I tried to perfect my round house kick at a classmate's groin or head.

While I didn't technically study Martial Arts as a child in a "real" dojo, I decided to finally enter a real dojo as I entered adulthood.

When I began studying martial arts I knew that this was what I was missing in my life to give me another step closer to fulfillment. Currently, I am training in Korean Taekwondo, the art of the powerful kick. Taekwondo means just that: "Tae" means strike with foot and "Kwon" means to strike with hand.

While, I have a creative and technical profession during the day, managing a technology support team at a College, I moonlight as an artist creating with my hands, cameras, and now with my fists and kicks.