Proskuryna Aksiniia, 16 years old

Winner of the 2024 essay contest, 1st place

Kharkiv Lyceum No. 3 of the Kharkiv City Council

Teacher who inspired to write an assay - Heleveria Olha Volodymyrivna

 

«1000 days of war. My way»

Kharkiv is the city where I was born and raised. With the beginning of the war, it became a place where I had to grow up earlier than I wanted. April 2022 changed my family's life forever. That day, my parents and brother left home to buy medicine at the pharmacy. A common thing, but during the war even this can be a test on the verge of life.

They were sure that, as always, they would have time to return home before the shelling started again. But the war did not ask whether we were ready for it.

That day, my older brother Zhenia, cheerful as always, went out to help bring back groceries. They did not even have time to notice the approaching artillery, but he felt the vibrations in the air and without hesitation shouted: “Lie down!” Everyone managed to lie down, but he wanted to cover his mother and did not have time.

She saw him fall dead, horror and the last seconds of life in his eyes. My father, wounded by shrapnel, still tried to save him, but it was too.

My brother, whom I always saw as an example of strength and courage, died saving our relatives. A few days before his birthday, his life was cut short. He left behind a wife, with whom they dreamed of a child, of a new life, which he would not see, because the war decided otherwise.

These moments are forever etched in my memory. It seems that the call from my mother after the explosion when she shouted into the receiver "Zhenia!" lasted not a few seconds, but an eternity. I was 14 then. Life made me change forever.

Living through a war at such an age is like taking a NMT test without knowing the right answers. Every day in Kharkiv - my favorite city - is full of danger, you don't know whether this day will be the last or not. A walk with a friend, celebrating New Year with my family, everything has become a burden, because you never know what will happen next.

Death and thoughts of how little I have left have become a constant companion, and a sense of security is a rarity when I am at home.

Sometimes it becomes so lonely that it seems as if the war has taken away not only my future and part of my family, but also my past, which I have forgotten amid the anxiety.

Life during war is not only about physical losses, but also about daily internal struggles.

To come to terms with the fact that your brother, the friends you recently saw, spent time with, have become memories of those you will never see again. To learn to live with the emptiness that remains inside, and with thoughts about what people's lives would have been like if not for those cruel days.

It is difficult to accept that I could have been among these people. These thoughts become an unbearable.

When a war lasts 1000 days, you learn to live with the fact that losses become part of your reality. But at the same time, I realized that you need to appreciate every moment spent with loved ones, every ray of light that breaks through the darkness of war.

Every day can be a challenge, but it also gives you strength to keep fighting, remembering those we have lost. It is a journey through pain and devastation, but it is also a journey of faith in the light ahead.

These 1000 days, like the war, took away my childhood naivety, replacing it with strength and patriotism that I have never felt before. Even when it seems that fear and pain are taking over everything around, I know that I must continue on this path for the sake of those who are no longer with me, for the sake of my parents who believe in me, for the sake of the future that I want to see.

I believe that our losses are not in vain, and I hope that very soon we will be able to live in peace and harmony. The war will end, we will all live, remembering our loved ones with love and gratitude.