Employee Spotlight | Natallia Bumazhkova

Natallia is one of our staff accountants working out of the Traverse City office. She joined the company in 2016 and is a valuable member of our Triple A's: Shared Service team. She volunteers as a CSS Spirit Committee member.

A FEW WORDS FROM NATALLIA:

Not many of you know that I was born and raised in Eastern Europe, in a small country called Belarus. From a very early age, I showed a lot of interest in different languages, so my parents decided to send me to a language school where I started learning English at the age of 6. At about the same time, I told my parents that one day I would become an accountant 😊 interpreter and travel the world, which sounded like an insane aspiration for a child living under the Soviet regime. America became my dream destination, and I was learning anything I possibly could about the country. The “American way of life” was unwelcome in the Soviet Union back in the days, which fueled my desire to learn about the country even more. While I was dreaming about coming to the United States, my parents made sure my sister and I had a chance to see how beautiful not only Belarus was but also other former USSR countries by taking us on many trips to various beautiful destinations.

At the age of 16, I became a freshman at Gomel State University going for a BS degree in English Language and Literature while doing both teaching and interpreting jobs on the side. Time flew by, and in June of 2000, I took my first intercontinental flight to spend an unforgettable summer in the United States, full of new and memorable experiences. I absolutely fell in love with the United States and decided to continue my education here. While in college, I met my husband Andy who I got married to and with whom I have two beautiful children: Sophia and Danil. When our kids were little, I tried my best to only speak to them in my native language (Russian), but at one point, it became quite a challenge because most of it needed to be immediately interpreted to English for my husband to understand. Eventually, I got lazy with my Russian, so now only one of my kids is bilingual😊

As a family we love to travel, showing our kids as many places and as many different cultures as possible. Travel is only one way for me to expand my cultural and social experiences; I also love exploring my consciousness through reading. I am passionate about health, wellness, and living a balanced life.

It might sound like a cliché for many, but every day, I  am striving to become a better human than who I was the day before.

Q & A WITH NATALLIA:

1. How did you first learn about CSS?
   I was searching for a solid company in the real estate industry, and CSS was on my radar for the longest time before the opportunity presented itself.
   
2. What do you like most about CSS?
   I appreciate our forward-thinking approach in everything we do.
3. What have you gained from working at CSS?
   I learnt that staying in the same spot nowadays is the same as moving backwards. Constant growth is essential to personal and professional success.
   
4. What is the first thing you would buy if you won the lottery?
   To tell you the truth, I don't care about winning the lottery. I believe in the power of balance, and everything that is credited to me in one way will be debited in other aspects of my life.
   
5. Your favorite sayings?
   “Most of our barriers are imagined limitations, so powerful that they dictate our reality”
   and
   “You help yourself by helping others.”
   
6. If you were to choose a superpower, what would it be?
   Most of our superpowers are within, we just have to start using them); but, honestly, I would love to be able to choose the amount of hours I have in a day (ex.: One day it would be 56 hours in a single day, another-24, etc.)
   
7. What are two things most people don’t know about you?
   • I have 4 (including MBA) degrees from 3 different universities.
   • I am multilingual (I speak Russian, Byelorussian, and English).
8. What are the three words that best describe you?
   Grateful, persistent, and trustworthy.
   
9. If you could only eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be?
   • One drink: coffee
   • One fruit: apple
   • One dessert: ice-cream
   • One snack: nuts