The Courage of Children: Boston and Beyond XXXIII

ILLIA LEBEDIEV
SCOTT LARIVEE, TEACHER
Mary Lyon K-8 School, Boston, MA
When the war in Ukraine started, my brother, my mother, and I went with
friends to Moldova because it was dangerous in Ukraine. When we got there,
we didn’t know where to live, so we went to a hostel and lived there for a week.
After some time, some more friends came to us. Then, we traveled to Poland
with some of our friends, and our other friends went to Romania. We lived in
Poland for six months. I learned their language and went to school there. After
that, we went back to Ukraine. We lived there for one to two months. While we
were living there, we heard an explosion, so we escaped to Romania, and we
lived there for almost six months! But I did not learn the language and did not
go to school there. After that, my father came to us, and we flew to America
in the summer.
“WHILE WE TRAVELED
BETWEEN DIFFERENT
COUNTRIES, I DIDN’T
EVEN THINK ABOUT
WHAT A COURAGEOUS
ACT I WAS DOING.”
At first, we lived in a friend’s house for about a month. The first one to two
weeks, we did paperwork. And when we were at home, we played games or
played on the phone. After that, we moved to the apartment where we live now.
At first, there was nothing there except the dressing room, the kitchen, and the
bed we bought, but we didn’t sleep there and went to our friends’ instead. The
next day, we found a sofa on sale. And now, we have completely moved. A
month later, we bought a car from the same friends, and life became much
easier. I was very glad then that we had a car.
Nothing interesting happened for at least the first two or three months that we
lived in America. Because I had nothing to do, I was bored all those days. But
then, when I went to school, it became much more fun, because I started
learning the language more, and I made new friends.
While we traveled between different countries, I didn’t even think about what a
courageous act I was doing. I just felt emotions: joy and sadness, anger and
kindness, as well as many other emotions. Therefore, I believe that this situation
has changed my relatives and me. I became less worried and afraid. It’s just that
I used to take everything to heart; I could get upset over some small trifle, but
now, I don’t. I also believe that I showed courage because I was not afraid of
the fact that I would never again see my old apartment, my friends, and
everything I had in Ukraine.
THE COURAGE OF CHILDREN: BOSTON AND BEYOND
VOLUME XXXIII
68 69