I graduated from secondary school in a small Estonian town Rapla with very good and excellent grades.  I knew that I wanted to study in Tallinn but did not know what to study. One day I met Tiiu Susi, who, like me, was an alumnus of Rapla secondary school, and we started talking. It turned out that she was studying economics, and she said that if I didn't have a definite direction and a plan for the future, I might also choose economics - the knowledge gained would be useful for everyone. I submitted the documents, the competition was fierce, but I got admitted.

We developed a nice group of friends - six girls, and it was great to study together. Sometimes we made blunders as well. One of our instructors was Mr. Parijõgi, who taught the course on work standardization. Of course, it sometimes happened that we were not prepared for the examination and our whole gang of women failed his examination, but later we took it again and earned maximum grades. Otherwise, we were decent students.

In the basement of the third dormitory, where female students lived, was the cultural club called Eva, which I was the president of during my university years. My task was to organize various events there. When there was no one to take to the stage, I sat behind the piano and sang. I remember attending a student art festival, winning first place, and being awarded my first trip to a foreign country - Romania. I still remember that trip! We tasted Pepsi Cola for the first time there. It was the highlight of the trip, although Cola, unfortunately, did not give a big impression to me.

At the end of university, I was assigned to work at the tobacco factory Leek. It was a time when graduates of the university had to work in the positions where they were assigned by the Ministry of Education for three years and only after serving your time it was possible to look around and decide about your future. However, I never reached the tobacco factory because the Ministry of Culture asked to reassign me to the Estonian National Philharmonic, and so there were no cigarettes made by me. Maybe I'd work in Marlboro today, you never know?

After being made redundant from the Philharmonic in the 1990s, I set up my own company, which I have managed to this day. I am able to count my income and expenses myself, I can handle accounting. Going to and graduating from the University of Technology has been the best decision of my life. I am very, very satisfied to this day.

The article was first published at the Estonian business newspaper Äripäev.