Sofia’s Story
February 24 I woke up in the morning around 4:50, l did not know what was going on, but l felt that something is wrong. I woke up because of the noise of bomb explosions, and Russian planes. I heard my father talking to his military friends. “The war started,” they said. I started panicking and ran to my mother’s room. We all were quiet, my sisters were sleepy and did not know yet why we woke up so early.
My father is a dentist, so he decided to go to the hospital where he worked to help people, we hugged him hard like we would do if it would be the last time. I saw he kissed Mom, and after said that if the bridge will be bombed we know a way to go around the city to our grandparents. Then l and my mom left home to buy as much food as we could and take money from the bank account. Because you do not know how long you will have access to the shops. We did not have any mobile connection to check on our families to see if they were alright.
We stayed in the city of Mykolaiv where l have lived my whole life. And the first, two weeks it was terrifying, when you hear the alarm you go into a bomb shelter for two or maybe six hours, nobody knows. You ration your food, and live in fear of the next day. When you go to sleep, you don’t know if you will wake up the next morning, the bomb might kill you, and your family too.
One day our friends came to us, they had two little kids. They asked us for help, they asked if we want to leave the country with them because they did not have a car for it. And in ten minutes we made a decision, my father stayed in Ukraine, but me, my mom and sisters were leaving. We had 7 minutes to pack our whole life in one backpack.
The way from Mykolaiv to Lviv area was scary, we followed the “safe” way, which our other friends sent to us. We did not stop for almost three days, and my mother had hallucinations, because she didn’t sleep enough. Hell started on the boarder of Ukraine. Thousands of people like us tried to leave the country and be in a safe place. It was March, late at night, extremely cold. We stayed the whole night, the whole 9 hours in 4 km long line, and we left our car, to make it faster. I cheered my sisters up, and remained awake the whole time since l am the oldest sister. Backpacks were so heavy, l did not know my sisters put potatoes, some bread and honey in them. They were so scared, that they did not take many warm clothes with them. And finally we arrived in Slovakia, volunteers drove us to the local school gym, and we stayed there for a couple of days. We all were happy we made it, because the Russians bombed a lot of cars with kids on their way to leave. After this we went to Germany.
We stayed two months in a refugee camp, where we believed we could somehow find a place where we could live. And yes it happened, now my family lives near Munich in a small village. My mom learns German language, and my sisters go to German gymnasium. And what about me? I won the program FLEX, for which l applied before the war even started. And l took this opportunity and am doing my exchange year in the USA. I am hosted in Texas, and live with a wonderful family! I am coming back in less than three months, and l know it’s going to be hard there, but l am ready to do everything for my life, and the life of my country!
I lost my uncle during the war, he died. He was a part of the military and it was a hard time for me, because his wife is pregnant, and all of family was in a grief. And l really miss all of my cousins, grandparents and friends. l can’t wait to see everyone one day again. But l also understand that nothing will be the same as it was before the war.
