Thank You/Anastasia Lvova

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There have been some hard times in my life. But I was able to overcome them, with the support of my friends and family &mdash; and a little help from Wikipedia.
Those were tough years, bouncing from place to place with just a few friends to count on. I felt almost completely alone. Sometimes in those days, Wikipedia was just the thing to take my mind off my problems and give me something useful to do. Of course, when I first found Wikipedia I thought there’s no way I could contribute anything. I was still a student &mdash; what did I know? But I realized I did have something to offer. Mostly all of my random interests and hobbies &mdash; from Irish step dancing to hand-sewing traditional dresses. I’ve also found that I can improve some of the existing articles; if I add a source, for example, or improve readability. Learning to translate my passions into simple, informative and accurate content was an amazing experience. Wikipedia taught me to achieve a neutral point of view, and it developed my professional and language skills. When I found a job, Wikipedia helped me become a more valuable and useful employee. Recently, I graduated magna cum laude… and I’m still improving my education.

And through Wikipedia’s community of volunteer editors, I’ve met some of my closest friends. I’ve been lucky enough to travel all over the world visiting them. My parents always used to tell me how important it is to do something helpful in the world. Wikipedia offered me a way to make the world better. I believe in helping others, and for me, that means supporting Wikipedia in any way I can.

 &mdash; Anastasia Lvova

''Anastasia Lvova is originally from St. Petersburg, and now lives in Moscow. After earning undergraduate degrees in psychology and management, she now works as a PR manager for an IT company. She's contributed to about 2,200 articles on Wikipedia and uploaded about 1,000 photos. She is 24 years old.''

Image Attribution: by Victor Grigas, under [//creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/legalcode CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported], from Wikimedia Commons.