I’ll be honest: I didn’t know precisely where Ukraine was before 2023. Although I could have identified the general area on a map, I didn’t know that it bordered Russia, and I certainly didn’t understand the long, difficult history between those countries. I was less focused on international politics and more concerned with getting an A in geometry, starting driving lessons, and improving my personal best in the mile.
But two years ago, through an organization called ENGin, I met Timothy, a 17-year-old living in the Shevchenko district of Kyiv, Ukraine. Every Saturday at 9 a.m., Timothy and I talk for an hour on Zoom as a way for him to practice his English. We rarely talk about the war; instead, we tend to talk about what we’re watching on Netflix, songs we’re learning on the piano, and what our pets have been up to. Recently, I asked Timothy if I could interview him as a way to better understand his life as a teen living in a conflict zone.
Since the attack three years ago, how has your everyday life changed? What has changed about being a teen?
“I would say that, right now, life has stopped. Even if you continue doing something, you don’t know what will happen next, when it will end. You can’t even build some dreams because everything can disappear. When you hear that 10 children have been killed by one bomb, you think, they had dreams also. They thought they would become something, but everything disappeared. Because of that you realize how lucky you are that all the really important people in your family are still alive—that’s how I would describe it. You can’t build plans.”
How has the war impacted your friends and family?
“I have started talking to my friends a lot less since the war started and everything went online. As for my family, during the war, my mother became the only source from where we get our money. My middle brother works as a teacher, but his money is only enough for better food. Because of the war, my older brother couldn’t work. We had this experience where my uncle was taken to military service and he died after only two months … Right now, I usually talk with my family online because we have split up a bit.”
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What is school like for you? How has it changed?
“I have been studying since 8th grade in an evening school, and there are not a lot of pupils. There used to be more students and people I could have conversations with. It feels different when you come into school and can talk face-to-face. When I started studying online, in the beginning, there were 3-4 people in the class with me. Right now, usually I am alone, or with one other girl.”
What about university? Are you planning to go to university? Do you have any plans for what you might want to study?
“Three months ago I thought [about it] one way, now I think another way. Right now, it is a little bit confusing for me because, honestly I have no clue. One part of me wants to study in university and visit Korea [through a language exchange]. Another part of me is telling me that it is not my path, because people who study Korean usually become teachers, which I hate… I couldn’t be a teacher. So probably, even if I study in university, I will end up playing outdoors on the piano as a career.”
What do you look forward to right now? What do you look forward to in the future?
“Every single person who is living in Ukraine will say one thing: we are looking forward to ending this war, because at least you would breathe a little easier. I hope that this war will end, even if it is a ceasefire. I can’t think about anything else before we see the end.”
As a teen in Belmont, it’s easy to get caught up in the stress of our own lives. We worry about getting a fun summer job, about passing our driving test, about what to wear to prom. Talking to Timothy each week helps put things in perspective. The reality is that most Belmont teens are very fortunate: we live in a beautiful, safe town, attend good schools, and have resources available to us. And most important of all, we live in peace.