What it Means to be a 22 y.o. Ukrainian
The story of my childhood, youth and early adulthood
What does it mean to be a young Ukrainian raised and become an adult in historical times? I was born in 2001 in the city of Nikopol, 5 kilometers away from the Zaporizhia nuclear power station. This is a factory town where the main population works in chemical and tube production. No fun and romantics.
The article continues down. Before that, please, don’t forget to subscribe to my page to be the first to read my future works: https://medium.com/@hanna.motorina/subscribe
One time I went on summer vacation with my grandmother Luda to Simferopol in Crimea. To find money for that trip, she sold her street basement where she used to keep pickles. Such a loss for an ex-Soviet person. And a few years later, my mom Maria got a free trip from her government job place to Zaliznyi Port, a village near to Nikolaev. I met a boy whom I liked for the first time who lived in our hotel, but she did not allow me to talk to him because she thought I was a child. We promised each other that when we grow up we would go to this village only together, without adults.
In 2004, when I was 3, Ukraine experienced the Orange Revolution, when the government power was shifted from the presidency to the parliament. When children were watching colorful cartoons while eating their breakfast, I was watching TV news with protests my parents were watching.
In 2013, when I was 12, the Euromaidan Revolution happened. Ukrainians wanted to change their vector from Russia’s side to the Western side. 108 civilians and 13 police officers were killed. Our President Victor Yanukovych ran from the country in a helicopter.
In 2014, when I was 13, the Crimean peninsula was occupied by Russia. A few months later, it also took the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Just about 5 hours by car from my home.
In 2016, when I was 14,5, I started my first job as a journalist in a local newspaper “The Reporter”.
My first assignment was to go and cover the funerals of a Ukrainian soldier died in Donetsk. No horoscopes and celebrity stories, guys.
In 2022, when I was 20, the Russian invasion of Ukraine started. I was a junior in college. On February 24, 2022, my roommate in a dorm woke me up at 9 am when I had a class at 1 pm. I was angry and shouted at her but she said that the war started. I thought that she was joking and checked the news. That morning was two years ago but I remember it as it was yesterday.
My hometown started soon to be bombed. For now, from its 100 thousand inhabitants, in the town remains about 40 thousand ones. More than 60 people were killed during the wartime. About 600 apartment buildings and 3000 private houses were ruined.
Zaliznyi Port was occupied too. No more trips there. I could never come back there with my “first love.”
It’s 2023, I am 22. In my life, I never saw peaceful times in my country. Every time we were faced with new and new challenges. Be that as it may, it influenced whom I am now and made me to start journalism to cover this age as a witness.
2024, what will you bring to me?
