My name is Elvira. I am from Ukraine, and I have lived in Finland for almost four years. Looking back, I can see that I have had to begin again more than once.
At 65, I am beginning again
On 25 August 2026, I registered my business in Finland. I am now preparing a small space in Kokkola where I can once again work as a cosmetologist and offer massage treatments.
For some people, registering a business may simply mean paperwork and an official date. For me, it means much more. It is another moment in my life when I said to myself:
I am continuing.
From finance to beauty and wellbeing
I worked in finance and economics for nearly 30 years, including in management roles. It was a large part of my adult life: familiar work, responsibility, people, and a sense that I knew what my future would look like.
Yet beauty and skincare had interested me since I was young. I wanted to understand how a woman could preserve herself for longer – not only on the outside, but inwardly too.
There was no internet then, where an answer could be found in seconds. I searched for information wherever I could, read, experimented, observed and tried to understand what truly worked. I never imagined that this interest would one day become my profession.
My first new beginning
The first great turning point came in 2014. I was 53 and living in Donbas when war began and the familiar world around me started to fall apart. I had to leave. At almost the same time, a long chapter of my working life ended when the bank where I worked closed.
In one moment, many things that had felt stable for decades disappeared: my job, familiar surroundings and my idea of what the rest of my life would be.
“Why start anything now? You will retire soon.”
That was what people told me. But I could not agree. At 53, I did not feel that life was over and that all I should do was wait for retirement. I wanted to work, learn, feel useful and remain responsible for my own life.
I moved to Kyiv and did something I had never seriously considered as a profession: I enrolled at a beauty institute and trained as a cosmetologist.
Was it frightening to change careers completely after almost thirty years in finance? Of course. But I began.
For the next several years, I worked as a cosmetologist and entrepreneur. I gained my own clients, experience and, most importantly, work I truly loved. The more I worked with people, the more clearly I understood that the most important part of my profession was not the treatment. It was the person.
When a woman sees herself again
We live in a world filled with stress: work, family, worry, responsibility, events around us, and the constant need to solve problems and hurry somewhere. I noticed this especially when working with women.
A woman becomes used to holding everything together. She cares for others, copes, hides her tiredness and thinks about family, children, work and loved ones. Sometimes she no longer notices how much tension she carries in her shoulders, neck, face and entire body.
I have seen the same moment many times. A woman arrives tired and tense, still thinking through all the things she needs to solve. Then her shoulders begin to relax, her expression changes, her gaze softens and a smile appears.
I have not created a different person or a different face. I have simply helped her let go of tension for a while – and then she herself becomes visible again.
Beauty is also about how a person feels.
From this understanding, I gradually developed my own method of relaxing bodywork, which I call the Anti-Stress ritual. To me, it is more than a series of massage movements. It includes work on the hands, neck, décolleté, face and head, with a calm rhythm and the warmth of human touch.
It is a chance to spend a little time without solving anything, hurrying anywhere or carrying responsibility – simply allowing yourself to relax. Self-care is not only about cream, make-up or a new hairstyle. It is just as important for a woman to give herself permission to pause and feel well.
And then war again
In 2022, life changed once more. War again forced me to leave behind the life I knew. This time I left Ukraine and came to Finland. It was the second time that war had made me begin again.
A new country. A different language. New rules. Unfamiliar people. And an age when one would usually want stability and peace more than ever. Instead, I had to build my life almost entirely anew.
I will not say that it has been easy. I feel fear and doubt. Will it work? Will I be able to work here? Can I learn enough Finnish to understand people and be understood? Are my knowledge and experience needed here?
When you are no longer twenty, or even forty, beginning again can be psychologically difficult. I used to solve many work-related matters quickly. Here, even simple things sometimes require much more effort: translating information, understanding an unfamiliar word, learning a system and finding the right rules.
I try to see it as another stage of learning. Today I understand one new word. Tomorrow I handle one more matter independently. The day after tomorrow, I take the next step.
One quality has helped me many times: I am not accustomed to giving up. That does not mean I am never afraid. I am afraid, I doubt, and sometimes I do not know whether I will succeed. Even so, I try to take the next step.
I do not want merely to live here
I am grateful to Finland for the possibility to live in safety. At the same time, it is important to me not to remain only a recipient of help. I want to build my own life here: to integrate, work, earn, meet people, be useful and gradually become part of this country and this city.
Kokkola is slowly becoming my home. I am still learning the language, and many things are new to me. But I do not want merely to live here. I want to work, meet people and bring something of my own – what I know and love to do.
That is why I decided to return to my profession. I prepared a business plan, studied Finnish requirements, spoke with specialists at KOSEK, calculated costs, collected documents and bought the equipment I needed. Step by step, the idea became real.
On 25 August 2026, I registered my business in Finland. I am 65. I could have told myself, “That is enough. You do not need to start anything more.” But that is not how I know how to live.
I am interested in life. I want to work, learn, be among people, remain independent and know that my knowledge and experience can still matter to someone.
A place where you can breathe
I am now preparing my small home studio in Kokkola, where I can once again work as a cosmetologist and offer massage treatments. I do not want it to be only a place where someone comes for a treatment and leaves.
I want to create a feeling of calm and care. A place where a woman can stop rushing for a while and does not have to solve anything. She can relax, feel the warmth of human hands, rest and return a little closer to herself.
Today I am a student again. I am learning Finnish, understanding the rules of entrepreneurship and mastering things I did not know before. Sometimes I make mistakes, sometimes I ask for help, and sometimes I have to begin again. Still, I keep moving forward.
“Change is inevitable. Growth is a choice.”
— John C. Maxwell
The changes in my life were not always my choice. Sometimes they came suddenly and broke apart what had seemed permanent. But what I did after those changes was my choice.
We never start from nothing
Several times in my life, I have lost the reality in which I thought I would continue living. Each time, I gradually built a new one.
That is why I believe less and less in the words “it is already too late.” Perhaps it is too late only when a person decides they no longer want anything. As long as life remains interesting, as long as we want to learn, work, meet people, be useful and make plans, we can begin at any age and in any place.
Beginning again does not mean beginning from nothing.
Everything we have already lived remains with us: our knowledge, experience, mistakes, character, the people we have met and everything life has taught us.
At 53, I changed careers. At 61, I moved to another country. At 65, I am starting my own business here.
I do not yet know what this new chapter will bring. But I hope my knowledge, experience and the warmth I can give people will find their place here in Kokkola.
And if someone tells me again that it is already too late for something, I think I will simply smile.
As long as life remains interesting, it is not too late.
— Elvira, Kokkola