Hello. My name is Sviatoslav and I’m a Ukrainian refugee in Germany. I want to tell you a short story. A story about two important lessons that I’ve learned from everything that happened to me since the beginning of the war. Of course, there are way more things that one can learn from moving to a different country, learning a new language etc. But in the end of the day, it all comes down to just these two: ‚don’t take your life for granted‘ and ‚be ready to stand for your values‘.

Being a teenager in Ukraine, I used to live a normal life. I was going to school, hanging out with my friends, and preparing for the exams. Everything seemed so normal, so mundane, it seemed like it’s gonna last forever. Even though I knew it was my last year at school, and soon I’d go to University, it didn’t necessarily mean a big change. It was a good life, yet we lacked the true gratefulness for what we used to have.

But in fall of 2021 it all changed for me…

As the Russian troops started gathering around Ukrainian borders, the entire world seemed to freeze in the anticipation of a new major war in Europe. But for people in Ukraine it was totally different. At first, no one believed that it could be real, we just went on, living our normal lives as if nothing’s been happening. Yet, it was a bit different for my family. We used to keep track of the important news in the world, and this time the threat looked real. So, of course, we talked about it in the family. And… It changed everything. I knew – if the war began, my life would change drastically. Everything that I loved, valued, enjoyed, could be gone in a matter of days…

And suddenly, it changed my attitude towards my life. I started paying more attention, and started being more grateful towards what I had. It lasted for a couple more months. I was going to school, hanging out with my friends yet again, but it felt different now. We didn’t talk much about the war, because most of us didn’t take the threat seriously. Still, the atmosphere was getting more intense by day.

I was walking around Kyiv thinking that soon I might have to leave. I was thinking about the people, about the children. It was very touching to see children running around the playground, where I used to play myself as a child, and realizing that they might be yet another generation of Ukrainian children who’d have to witness yet another war…

I left Kyiv a few days before the war. It was a weird feeling, I didn’t know whether I’m coming back in a week or maybe it’ll be years later if ever…

“We don’t truly appreciate what we have until it’s gone…”
— Roy T. Bennett

When I came to Germany, just a few weeks after the war began, I went to a German school. The school wasn’t any different to mine, as weren’t the classmates. Just teenagers, doing things that all normal teenagers do: studying and having fun. I was still in touch with my Ukrainian friends and classmates though. And I realized one thing – German teenagers are just like we used to be before the war. They were living their normal lives, studying, having fun, and generally taking life for granted, as all normal teenagers do. But it’ll never be the same for us. Not anymore… We got to know the hard way what is the true value of happiness, the real value of freedom and its actual cost. We are yet another generation of Ukrainians, who have to stand for their freedom yet again. Because if we don’t, no one will.

To sum up, what I learned is to value my life, to embrace it. And also I learned that the freedom we have shouldn’t be taken for granted, we have to be ready to stand for it, otherwise all of our values aren’t worth a penny. This is the lesson that we learned as Ukrainians, and I want to believe that the rest of Europeans will take something useful out of it, without learning it the hard way. So, embrace your life and yet be ready to stand for what you love, to stand for your values, before it’s too late! Nothing is eternal…