‘My life has changed dramatically – a brutal war knocked on the door’

Amina Podolyanyuk, Municipal institution Pisochyn Lyceum MOBIL of Pisochyn village, Kharkiv region,

In the "One Day" essay competition, her  work took 3rd place

War... How much pain, suffering, grief and sorrow is contained in this word. Have people always been so cruel to each other? Are people really such soulless beings capable of killing others of their own kind?

War is something that is impossible to survive easily. Because a great burden in the soul remains with you forever, which will sometimes be felt as the most difficult trial in life.

The war began in independent Ukraine so suddenly and abruptly, and seven years ago none of us could have imagined that this tragedy could affect their family, hometown, their friends and colleagues.

For the first time, the feeling of anxiety and fear for my own life appeared in my childhood. For more than twenty years, our family had lived in a small town near Donetsk, called Avdiivka, and during such a long period my parents achieved a lot.

My childhood was happy, carefree and dreamy. It was filled with love, sincerity and warm emotions. Memories of those times always warm my soul in difficult moments.

However, one day my life changed dramatically – a brutal war knocked on the door, shattering my idea of an everlasting happy childhood.

On that terrible day, I came to school, as always, but there were few pupils there. This surprised me, because sometimes the school seemed to me a small house where too many little dwarfs were placed. It was unusual to walk through empty and deserted corridors and hear only the sound of your own old shoes shuffling on the floor. Looking into the eyes of the teachers, who always smiled at me, I felt their compassion and sadness, and for some reason I also became sad.

That day, for the first time in my life, I heard the sound of a real (gun)shot. As a nine-year-old girl who could be frightened by any sudden sound, I shuddered, asking my English teacher, ‘Was it a bomb?’ She calmed me down quickly, but I still felt her panic and agitation. On the same day, for the first time, I saw my father very reserved and serious, and my mother confused and upset.

These people really wanted to live. And they had lived until one day they were killed by a shell. One can justify the death of a human being by the destiny or decision of God, but does it make sense when the list of deaths grows up with every coming day?

The war is unfair to everyone, but first and foremost to the dead. We must remember all those whose hearts stopped beating because of the brutality of the war.

I am very happy that I live now under a peaceful sky and there is no reason to worry about the lives of my family, but I still hope that one day we will return home and everything will fall into place: my mum will continue to work as a teacher, my grandma will be engaged in farming, I will be able to go to a dance circle again, and my dad will just be happy to live near us. Unfortunately, these are just dreams that cannot come true now.