Woolaston News Winter 2022 online (1)

Our Lives Changed
in an Instant.
Have you ever wondered if war would
happen again, when you were learning
history of World War II?
For me, the word “War” has always
been equivalent to the word “Dinosaur”.
Something in the distant past.
So, without any thought, on February
23rd, my classmates and I came back to
our desks for the first time after a long
quarantine. I plunged headlong into the
study of TV journalism and was very
happy to be doing something I like. I fell
asleep with my plans for the next day
and with dreams of my future the same
evening. And I woke up from my mother’s
call with the words: “Honey? there are
explosions in Kyiv. The war has begun!”
“Mum, It’s fake, there is quiet here, I am
sleeping. Don’t worry about me.” With
these words our conversation ended. But I
didn’t go back in bed. The next days were
like a blur.
At 7 am in the morning, all the students
were sent to the bomb shelter, where we
were for the whole day, panic reigned
everywhere, grocery stores emptied almost
immediately, public transport stopped
working, and there was only one thing in
my head: “What will happen next?” When I
realised that the situation was getting worse,
I decided to go to Hungary to my sister.
There were countless people who did not
know where to look for help at the Kyiv
railway station, most of them simply
jumped into random evacuation trains. But
even this turned out to be a task with an
asterisk, because there was an unreal crowd
of people, including children and women.
They just fell off the train. Luckily, I was
one of the first in the carriage, but I cannot
say it was comfortable: 4 people sat in the
seat of one passenger - the rest stood all the
way to Lviv.
Our life before the war. Practice on TV.
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