Chapter I

Today's world is full of artists. Artists of all kinds. From many different professions. Of course, to achieve anything in the arts, you have to be special. Not only can a talented person be a successful artist, but so can someone who has no talent for what they have become successful at. In the following I will write about just such a person.

Few people from Poland make it to Hollywood glamour. At least, there is little of that to read about these days. Still, my story is about a young genius of Polish origin who deserves a few pages of attention. Her name was Emilia Zajac and she was born in Krakow, not far from the old town, in the city hospital. Her parents and her one-eyed brother, who was four years older than her, were eagerly awaiting the arrival of the new arrival.

I was tiny, premature, and screaming as I could in the back of my throat. At least, that's what my mother and father told me about the circumstances of my birth. I spent a lot of time in an incubator, and from what my father told me, I knew I was an incredibly stubborn creature. I complained, screaming my head off, until I got what I wanted. But that was only when I was a child, now I can give things up. My story is really - at least in my opinion - that of an ordinary girl who came into the public eye by performing unusual tasks. Don't get me wrong, it took a lot of work and I was rewarded by being one of the busiest composers in Hollywood. But it didn't just fall into my lap and I had to give things up.

But I haven't talked about how I got the nickname"dog girl" yet, so I'll get to it. You already know that I was born to the delight of my parents and my brother. The former belonged to the Polish intelligentsia, both were teachers. One of them, as an opera singer, gave private singing lessonsto students at the Academy of Music in Krakow, and since my father was the man, he got the lion's share: he was a training officer at the military cadet training centre. I can guess what you must be thinking: they must have brought me and my brother up under military discipline. Well, as a matter of fact, my father made an agreement with my mother before we were born that my father would leave the military at work and never be strict unless necessary. So I had a childhood full of excitement and lots and lots of fun. I had many interests and hobbies that I might have been able to make a living from, but they faded away. The school and junior school years were the talent fair. I loved doing so many things that my mum and dad couldn't decide what to enrol me in. So I was on a schedule, with something to do every afternoon. So I wasn't bored even at the beginning of school. I was even enrolled in music school to play the violin, which I practised a lot, conscientiously and persistently. This of course paid off. I was called a violin genius because, although I practised, I learned to read music quickly, and so I quickly learned what my teacher gave me to learn from one lesson to the next. I loved music.

As I grew up, I grew to love all genres of music, although heavy rock music was never my thing. My talent for the violin didn't deve