Alexandra "Sasha" Knyaz spent most of her childhood following her big sister around, wanting to be just like her. She copied her mannerisms and habits, feigned interest in her hobbies, helped her get into and out of trouble, and all but worshipped the ground she walked on. (She tried to at the age of four, only to be stopped by their grandmother.) Her youth was fairly unremarkable, if not busy. Her parents were busy with their growing professional lives, leaving much of the child-rearing to the girls' grandmother until her death in 2000.

Their parents uprooted their lives and dearest belongings and moved them from Odessa to Deerfield, a Chicago suburb. The beginning of the teenage years was hard enough, but to have everything she knew taken away from her made the move to the US that much more difficult for Sasha. She had only just begun to grow into her own skin prior to their big move abroad. Breaking out of her shell, she had started to grow into her own person, turning her nose up at things she had previously enjoyed if only because Anya had, too. The hero worship was no more. She found her own friends and formed her own routines, which to her parents' joy, seemed to involve a lot of studying. Sasha actually liked learning. She liked being known as one of the smart kids, someone that could be trusted to know the answers. Kids can be cruel, however, and Sasha found herself subject to teasing and insults from her American counterparts. She spoke 'funny English' and probably ate weird things (how they knew stumped her, seeing as how they bought the same lunches from the same cafeteria). Anya quickly became her only friend, again, and she spent the rest of middle school living the life of an outcast with very few allies in her court. Her world shattered once again when her parents announced that they were getting a divorce—and then again, just a year later, when Anya moved to Calofornia for college. It was with a sigh of relief that Sasha was shipped off to boarding school not long after, with Choate Rosemary Hall destined to be her new home over the next four years.

Starting school away from Deerfield, away from family, away from other students who had made middle school a living hell, Sasha contemplated how to reinvent herself. She had the opportunity to come up with a new identity that would appeal to her new classmates. After all, they were all getting fresh starts, so why couldn't she? After a summer of deliberating, she chose to arrive at Choate as no one else but herself. Over the next four years, she made a handful of friends for herself, something that would have been impossible to avoid in such close quarters. She wasn't popular by any means, but at least she wasn't a total misfit.

That is, until halfway through her senior year, when she was accused of being the student who snitched on a group of girls who had cheated on a chemistry exam. The news had resulted in a round of expulsions for the students caught cheating, and Sasha found herself ostracized by her peers once again. She denied playing any role in the accusations, and it wasn't until towards the end of her time at Choate that she discovered the culprit to be her own former best friend. Miserable and alone, she finished off the rest of high school as an outcast once again. College was the next step for Sasha, and fortunately it wasn't too far off. Her stellar grades meant that she had her pick of schools, and she ultimately enrolled at Barnard College where she majored in biochemistry. The lab quickly became her new love. College came and went, and with it, the experience one usually gains in that setting. She made friends, forged new relationships, broke a few hearts, and had hers broken in return. Four years in New York went by pretty quickly, and Sasha found herself packing her bags once again, this time for a move to the opposite coast.

Somewhere along the way, she had decided that medical school was her next step. An arduous application process had both worn her down and excited her for what was to come. All signs pointed to UCLA, where Sasha spent the next four years cramming as much information as she could about saving lives. Though she was used to being one of the brightest and best, so was everyone else in her class. She sat comfortably in the upper third of her med school class, and while that felt like settling for a while, she slowly grew used to it, realizing that being in medical school already meant that she was one of the best. And as much as she valued her education, she quickly learned that squeezing in some time at the beach every now and then was just as important.

After a busy and stressful matching process that had Sasha flying all over the country for interviews, she was matched at the Columbia University. Eager to be closer to family, she packed up her belongings yet again and joined her sister in New York. Now in her third year of her general surgery residency, Sasha continues to put in long hours as she enjoys her standing just above the bottom of the totem pole. With so much time dedicated to her career, Sasha hasn't had much of an opportunity to have a proper social life. She eats, sleeps, and breathes surgery, but she hopes that her return to New York, closer to her older sister, will provide her with some much needed stability and the opportunity to find a better balance between her professional life and her personal life.