More than four centuries ago, William Shakespeare wrote that “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” Through his “Seven Ages of Man,” he outlined a universal human journey, with each stage having its distinct character—from the whining schoolboy to the sighing lover to the ambitious soldier. It is a path that has, for generations, felt familiar and true.
The young students whose words are gathered in this collection, however, find themselves on a stage Shakespeare could never have envisioned. They are living the age of the lover and the soldier simultaneously, not in sequence. They are navigating one of life’s most exciting and formative periods—a time of first loves, final exams, and bold dreams for the future—against the harrowing backdrop of war. Their reality is a profound paradox: the thrill of being eighteen or nineteen years old, with a whole life waiting to unfold, is shadowed by the daily threat of its abrupt end.
Myroslava M.:
Are you acquainted with a constant feeling of anxiety inside most of the time your thoughts are jumping in a wild dance in your head. When being asked what you think about, a girl my age will never answer “nothing.” Am I successful enough in life? What does this term « successful » mean? Some of your classmates have already started their own business, and some haven’t even entered university yet so as not to leave their comfortable room. And now you are standing at a crossroads and don’t know what to choose, because both options have their pros and cons. So you entered the university of your dreams, but literally after six months your pink glasses break in your eyes. You take on more changes at work; maybe at least there will be benefits from this if you still don’t get a diploma and drop out? But none of your decisions go unnoticed. Your boyfriend is offended because you spend less time with him, and your friends receive streams of negativity due to your chronic fatigue. Your parents scold you for not trying hard enough, although they simply don’t know the details of the big picture. You didn’t tell them specifically with a purpose of not upsetting them at home, which the grueling boss had already done. You just cross off the days on the calendar before moving. Such is the price of being a woman in the 21st century, in Kyiv during a full-scale invasion. You spin like a squirrel in a ring, when time is fleeting. It escapes like water between your fingers.
Oleksandra Lutsenko:
Being a teenager in today’s world is a reality full of spontaneous decisions, vivid moments, feelings, and new, inexhaustible knowledge. Indeed, everyone will say that youth is the best time of life and we only live it once, so we need to grab everything it gives us without hesitation and start learning everything we can. Your body is young and healthy, and a thousand and one ideas about a new hobby or activity you are engaged in flash through your mind in a second. In addition, this is the time when the framework for good socialisation is formed, the transition from school to university, student organisations and similar things that help to develop new acquaintances, and some of them may even remain good and reliable friends and connections throughout the country and the world for life. First love, which is more conscious than childhood crushes, also falls during this period, so it is truly a wonderful time for both personal growth and social development.
However, in our country, this youth is marred by war and constant fear for our future and, even more so, for our lives. But even despite these hardships, we live life to the fullest and take everything we can from it. Of course, there are many difficulties on the path to adulthood. As a 19-year-old student, I have experienced many of them in my short life, and I think that’s not all. Obsessive thoughts about my future career, constant stress with my studies, a broken heart, and some difficulties with planning my time are just a small part of what I have experienced first-hand over the past few years.
But my dreams and hopes for the future cannot be broken by such a minor setback. My plans include taking the IELTS English language exam and significantly improving my German language skills. In addition, I really want to travel a lot with my friends and my significant other to see all the beauty of this world and find a part-time job while studying to get a better idea of where I want to go next in my career. I am confident that my youth will be as eventful as the circumstances in our country allow, and I will continue to develop and learn something completely new every day.
Polina Kostina:
Growing from a teen to a young adult during full-scale war makes you aware of the dangers that might cost you your life, all the while trying to go on with your everyday business. You check for bomb shelters whenever you go for a walk with friends, you scroll news on your phone on lunch break to see what kind of missile flies in your direction, you always keep portable battery nearby so that during blackouts you can charge your computer and finish your homework. These things become subconscious to you, akin to a second nature, but going abroad or speaking with people who cannot relate to your struggles is like getting a rude wake up call that it’s not normal. No one should be living in these conditions. The third stage of your life is not spent sighing like a furnace with a woeful ballad at the ready; rather, you try to live to your fullest while aiding those who maintain your freedom.
Vlada Hotovtseva:
If you are a young adult, you constantly face numerous challenges and obstacles, strive for something new, and think about the future rather than the past. However, our reality and circumstances are not under our control in most cases, and this may really change the mindset and goals of young people who have just started learning how to live in this complex world. Based on my experience, the war has strongly influenced me and people around me. Although I try to live a full life and find happiness in tiny details, sometimes I tend to feel slight desperation for several reasons.
The first one is that almost all my true friends moved to other countries, and sometimes I feel really lonely. When you are young, you want to hang out with your friends, but you don’t always have this possibility. Still, my best friends and I call each other regularly, and I try to visit them twice a year when I have my holidays, so I am convinced that true friendship exists.
The second reason that sometimes makes me feel down is that I don’t know what to expect from the future. Where is it better to work? Which sphere should I choose? (But a philology degree could hopefully open plenty of doors.) Or maybe I should move after getting my degree and make a fresh start?
Although there are many questions and the future is unclear, I’d like to mention some points that make my life bright and interesting regardless of what is going on around me. Among such things are my interesting job (I teach English to little children), my hobbies (playing the piano, knitting, and embroidering), the stunning places around me (I really admire Kyiv, where I study, and Irpin, where I live), and traveling (I always look forward to meeting my friends again and exploring new places).
Although I am not an optimist, I am convinced that no matter what, I have to make my life full of positive emotions and stay in touch with my beloved people!
Yevheniia Khashcha:
Speaking on the subject of how to be a teenager in Ukraine, I cannot help but mention the pressure. Pressure not only to find my path in this life, not only to study or work to close basic needs, but also to succeed, to reach the top at such a young age. And, sometimes, this pursuit of success turns into a silent competition between peers. And that fear of being left behind leads to anxiety and feelings of insufficiency, which obviously are no good. But there is nothing wrong with people my age who are just doing their best trying to find the direction of their lives; there is nothing wrong with those who rush to live as if tomorrow does not exist either. My generation must learn how to stop blaming ourselves and give free rein to our inner sense of pace, without the influence of social media or comparison to other people’ lives.
Anna Nazarenko:
“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players,” wrote Shakespeare, and today I feel myself playing the role of a teenager in Ukraine. Being 19 years old here is not only about dreams, friendships, and searching for who I am; it is also about carrying heavy responsibilities. The surrounding challenges, from uncertainty about the future to the painful reality of war, often force us to grow up faster than we would like to. Because of drones and constant air alerts, we remain under continuous stress. Occasionally we have to stay awake until 5 a.m. waiting for the alert to end, and in the morning we still need to go to university. Our bodies simply do not have enough time to complete all the necessary processes during sleep, which leaves us exhausted and drained. At the same time, I hold on to expectations, such as studying , building a career, traveling freely, and, most importantly, living in peace. Even though obstacles sometimes seem overwhelming, I believe that my role on this stage is not just to endure but to create meaning, to become stronger, and to keep the hope that better days are ahead.
Yaroslav Kryvko:
Living teenage years during war feels handicapped compared to normal times. Firstly, many events are canceled or limited. Secondly, because of curfew, it is forbidden to go out late. I love walking at night, listening to music or audiobooks, and the absence of this activity hurts me. Furthermore, the nights during shelling are stressful and have a bad impact on mental health. During the air alert, public transportation and some establishments don’t work, so I have to wait for half a day for them to open occasionally.
Talking about Shakespeare’s monologue All the World’s a Stage, I can’t connect with any of the given life stages, because none of them describe the way I act and feel, though I think the poem is more about the fact that people act according to the role, they think they belong to, than describing the way they act—those are just examples, common archetypes.
Bohdan Valeriia:
Youth is said to be the best time of our lives.
And indeed, it seems wonderful to live your best years in a peaceful country, but, unfortunately, we do not have this opportunity. Today’s world is full of cruelty and violence, and Ukrainians face missiles and bombs almost every day.
The war began when I was only fifteen years old, and soon I will turn twenty. It has stolen many people and many things from us. A lot of my peers moved to Europe to escape the war, others lost their loved ones. Those who stayed will probably never fully recover from this nightmare. Living in constant fear of the night, knowing that any day can be the last, has become a common experience for us.
In addition, many of us feel guilty about the happiness we sometimes experience. How can we enjoy life when such terrible things are happening in Ukraine? Yes, we still have parties, love, and moments of joy , but this guilt stays with us forever. It stings with sorrow.
And yet, despite everything, we go to universities after the bombings, we keep dreaming, and we continue to plan our future in peaceful Ukraine.
So, this is what it feels like to be a young adult in Ukraine.
Mariia Sydorenko:
Being a teenager in Ukraine today feels like living two lives at once. On the one hand, we have the same dreams as our peers anywhere else, such as hanging out with friends, going to concerts, pulling all-nighters not because of fear, but because of laughter. On the other, reality presses down heavy as our nights are cut short by curfews. Instead of parties, many of us spend long, scary nights in shelters, sharing snacks in breaks between following where another missile is going to attack and trying to make jokes loud enough to cover the sound of blasts. The thought of “nightlife” that teenagers abroad take for granted feels almost unreal here, our version of it is waiting for diplomats to finally negotiate even a single quiet night without missiles.
University doesn’t feel like a place for studying most of the time. You drag yourself into class with heavy eyes, trying to focus, but your body remembers every hour of the sleepless night. Occasionally it feels cruel, how are we supposed to learn new things when survival itself is already homework we didn’t choose? And still, we push on. Because in the middle of all this exhaustion and fear, there’s a stubborn hope that one day we’ll get to live like normal people, with plans that aren’t constantly interrupted by explosions, with nights meant for resting and not hiding. Until then, we carry both our teenage dreams and this impossible weight together.
Inna Pohrebniak:
Teenage years are the most intimidating and challenging period of a person’s life, since teens have to overcome numerous obstacles as they figure this world out.
Unfortunately, teenagers in Ukraine don’t have as many opportunities as their peers from abroad due to the full-scale invasion of a terrorist country. Having been fifteen when the invasion began, I often feel as if my best years were stolen. I can still recall the dreadful morning of the 24th of February, filled with terror and chaos, when all of my dreams and plans for the future drastically changed and were replaced by the single wish to survive.
If I compare myself to my peers who live abroad, I can highlight several major differences in our lifestyles, mindsets, and plans.
First, while teenagers in Ukraine constantly remain in a state of anxiety because of air alerts and hazardous missiles, our peers can fully enjoy fast-paced lives without the need to stay vigilant against deadly threats. In addition, Ukrainian teenagers’ opportunities are tremendously limited, since the war has had a detrimental impact on our education and leisure. Secondly, according to Shakespeare’s monologue “All the world’s a stage,” I am supposed to be in the lover’s age, yet the only thing that truly occupies my mind is the well-being of my loved ones. Moreover, my friends who live abroad have ironclad plans for their future, whereas I cannot actualize my abilities because of the uncertainty and unpredictability of life.
In conclusion, being a teenager in Ukraine today means living under constant pressure and danger, while trying to preserve hope for a brighter future. Despite the obstacles, I believe that one day I will be able to fully realize my potential and finally live the youth that was taken from me. I hope that younger generations of Ukrainians will never have to face such challenges during the age that should be filled with joy and discovery, not fear and disquiet.
Sophia Holovko:
«Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel, seeking the bubble reputation even in the cannon’s mouth.» This Shakespearean phrase describes an average young person in a country that has the biggest privilege in the world—peace. Every day I see so many teenagers from other countries on the internet, and, as a teenager that has lived in a full-scale war for three years already, I feel the huge difference between me and them. They’re literally «seeking the bubble reputation,» thinking that the most valuable thing in the world is to be adored by their peers, or having romantic relationships with the beautiful boy/girl, or other average things. They’re happy to care about the trivia and don’t feel strange about it, while every time I care about something as prosy, I can’t escape the feeling that it actually means nothing. Every second someone in our country is being bombed, loses their home in occupation, or risks their life on the front line, so why would I even pay so much attention to my problems? But then I realize that I can’t escape the life of a teenager with all its happiness and sadness, so I try to just live it, which is so hard. My future is not even in my hands because there are no guarantees that it will really come one day. I don’t know if my family and hometown will be safe. I try to help our army, but is it even enough? If not, then what can be enough? War always gives so many doubts about everything but leaves no doubt for one thing: I’ll do my best, regardless of what comes, and I’m not going to give up.
Maria Lemeshchuk:
Each day for a Ukrainian teenager might be a turning point for the worst, but we still aspire to live our best lives and appreciate every moment.
A teenager, according to various sources, is a person ages 10 (or 13) to 19. Therefore, the experiences totally differ: an 11-year-old might barely remember their peaceful life, while older teens, including me, watched the full-scale invasion unfold in real time. Younger ones mostly don’t have a profound understanding of the situation; for example, they’re usually the ones watching russian content and ignoring the fact it monetises rockets that later bomb our cities. My age group is, sadly, accustomed to war, so we plan our futures, hoping we won’t get killed the upcoming night. All that may sound wild to Westerners, but those Westerners also are the ones doing almost nothing about it.
Overall, the lives of Ukrainian teenagers nowadays are unpredictable. Some of us don’t remember the relatively peaceful times; some had gotten used to the constant shellings.
Polina Volodina:
Being a teenager in Ukraine in 2025 is sometimes harder and sometimes easier than people expect it to be. There are pros, but there are also significant cons you have to face on your journey. The most obvious obstacle is living in the middle of a war. Even if you move to a neighbouring country and live as little as five kilometers away from the border, you will get away from the extreme danger that haunts Ukrainian people every day. It is definitely hard to live your life to the fullest when any second you might have to run to a bomb shelter. But, of course, it doesn’t have to be all negative. I personally live in a walkable and lovely area—I am able to, hypothetically, go get a coffee every morning, take a long stroll through a beautiful park, use urban transport, and get to a lot of places in the city quite smoothly. That would not be the case for a teenager living in most areas of the USA, for example. I can’t imagine living without a cafe five minutes away from my house. On the other hand, Ukrainian teenagers are expected to become successful quite young, much younger than a typical Central European person. They’re all pretty chill there, and usually begin moving on with their career path around 25 years old, or even later than that. In our country, you often start feeling the pressure to move out of your family home at around 19, which is my age. But that sort of environment also gives you a strong, natural sense of ambition, which helps with the goals you might set for yourself. One of my goals is to become a prominent figure in the graphic design community, and, hopefully, despite the challenges, I can reach it as soon as possible.
Viktoriia Kartun:
Back when I was eight years old, dreaming about being a teenager and desperately wanting the time to move faster just so I could savor the taste of adult life as soon as possible, I couldn’t even begin to imagine that my teenagehood and young-adulthood would be spent by hiding from hoardes of deadly drones every single night, studying in overcrowded, dusty bombshelters, and learning to differentiate between the explosions caused by a strike of a ballistic missile and the ones caused by our air defense.
Back then, I couldn’t even fanthom that one day, I would be late to classes not because I overslept or decided to hang out with my friends instead of studying, but because I spent hours in line on a military roadblock or got held back in a traffic jam, caused by the military registration and enlistment workers.
Back then, I couldn’t imagine any of that. Yet, it is how my teenage years turned out to be, and I can’t do anything about it, except for trying my best not only to survive in such harsh circumstances, but also to nurture the resilience within me, to broaden my horizons, and to develop my knowledge—all in hopes that one day, I will be able to change this reality, and not let any more teenagers live through the cruel things that should only be a part of fiction.
Olha Hrybivska:
Today, being a teenager in Ukraine is not the easiest role. One day you can sleep peacefully, and the other day you’re supposed to spend the whole night in the shelter or the staircase, since it’s still safer than staying in the room during attacks. The sad part is, the next morning you have to be present at the university—tired and confused but still obliged to work hard for your future.
I hope one day the war will be over and there will be less sorrow, death, and exhaustion all around, and we’ll have an opportunity to visit other countries freely while foreigners will crowd our streets again.
Daria Kozlova:
Youth in Ukraine is a life of hardship and fear—with the two greatest teachers of youth among warriors and knights, not among boastful and worthless comedians.
It is a life with no time for hesitation or everlasting uncertainty; on the contrary, every young person must clearly define their mission and give an answer to the question, “How and where will I serve my Homeland?”
Young years in Ukraine are best suited for the passionate and high-spirited idealists, for romantics whose youthful fervor longs to stand shoulder to shoulder in struggle with the finest warriors. For to live here means to be shaped into a strong personality, with no right to weakness.
I, along with hundreds of my like-minded peers, have no illusions—our entire life will be a war. This means, first, that we must seize every opportunity to learn, because a Ukrainian must be the most educated among all the nations of the world. And second—we must «sharpen the sword,» lest the enemy destroy us. The reason for this is simple yet compelling: the times demand it.
Polina Aronova:
To be a teenager in Ukraine today means to live between fear and hope. On the one hand, we face challenges that no young person should know—the sound of sirens, the uncertainty of tomorrow, the feeling that the future can be stolen in a single moment. On the other hand, we still dream, we still expect something better, because as Shakespeare wrote, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” Our stage is scarred by war, but we continue to play our part with courage.
I’ve noticed one truth that has become very personal: hope in the heart dies last. Even when you run to the basement during explosions, even when the fear presses on your chest, the moment you step outside and hear the birds singing after the silence, it feels like the world whispers, life goes on. That fragile song of nature becomes stronger than the echoes of destruction.
We expect peace, safety, and the chance to live a normal teenage life—to learn, to love, to make mistakes, to laugh freely. These expectations may seem simple, but in our reality, they are the most precious.
Mariia Dimova:
To be a teenager during the full-scale war means to have a huge number of different experiences tried on your own. Best friend’s father’s loss, hurry-written grant on volunteering project, posts on social media in aim to raise funds for Defenders, some weaved nets, and a total ignorance of instructions. It all started from a choice—and it divided our lives, of course. Yesterday’s struggles to succeed in the Olympiad are today’s will to help, to be truly useful, to stay with those who are choosing to improvise too, to learn the new rules of life and being a part of the rear. The more you help, the greater people you meet, and sometimes crossing the borders of your “bubble” makes you mad, erratic… But sharpening of the values, realizing you have done something without preparation because you simply had no time—and it worked! — can also make you fly. Many places to miss and to cry for, so many people with no return… And so many new ones. “The lover <…> than a soldier” scenario played thousands of times, and each time differently. To be a teenager during this war means to feel more and to be happy to do this on your land with the best people. Not the worst way to do it, as it revealed.
War as a part of identity
Maria Maystrenko:
One thing that I often seem to notice is the difference in perceptions of the everyday reality we (teenagers) and the generation of our parents have.
Growing up, while being a living part of war is, for me, the most crucial aspect of being a teenager in Ukraine right now. When war becomes something that is always there, present in your life, you are not seeing it separately from your overall human experience. You just never knew how to be a teenager without it.
The war came into our parents’ life. It was an interruption. Our mothers and fathers already had a conscious life before the russian military invasion of Ukraine.
As for us (teenagers), war reached us when we were little kids or when we were just about to become teenagers. War is not an interruption; it’s unfortunately a part of our growth and formation as human beings that we cannot be separated from. War is not just something temporary. It is absolutely terrifying, but it is something that shaped our identity from the beginning. There are even kids that were born already during the war. And their experience will be even more inseparable from it. Whereas for our parents, it changed them as adults.
Yevgenia:
Nobody’s lives have been the same since the russia’s invasion. Everyone has been affected by it to a greater or lesser extent. As a teenager living in Ukraine during these difficult times, I now and then reminisce about the pre-war times. By comparing my life before the war and after its beginning, I was able to see the things that have changed my teenage life.
The most prominent change is the shift in feelings. The feelings of safety and security have been replaced with the perpetual fear for the lives of the loved ones. The desire to commit to something and set long-term goals was replaced with uncertainty about the future and the loss of a sense of planning practically anything, as any of my plans could be destroyed at any time.
Every day is spent in a mixture of contrary feelings, namely the feeling of hope that someday everything will be normal again, as well as the feeling of anticipation. Expectation of something violent and destructive happening, after which my life will not be able to be the same.
Something I miss the most about the pre-war times is normal life experiences. Spending your day without the fear of somebody close to you dying, your home being destroyed, and your life entirely ruined. Going to bed without wondering whether you are going to wake up or not, whether luck will be on your side tonight. Getting through the whole night without waking up to the sounds of missiles and news about the lives of your closest ones being ruined. Something that back then used to be very normal and usual, but right now seems like something highly unattainable, not to say impossible. But one of the things that I have learned is that it is highly crucial to value the simple things and be grateful for everything, as every single thing that you have, love, and value can be taken away from you at any given moment, as the experience has shown us.
Yeva Lapatiuk:
Young people, especially teenagers, are often considered to live radiant, happy, and carefree lives, since they are not yet fully independent. However, I believe this image is not always true. Even though teenagers don’t usually have many responsibilities, we still face numerous problems. Being a teenager means standing between childhood and adulthood. With that comes many new realities that we don’t know how to handle because of our lack of experience.
It feels like being torn away from complete carelessness and thrown into the often harsh adult world, where everyone expects you to be ready for anything that comes at you. War is one of the things teenagers were never meant to face, yet here we are. And I think it changes everything we knew about the world.
On top of the usual social struggles that come with growing up, we now carry the constant fear of losing everything and everyone we love, or even losing our own lives. The war robs teenagers of the part of their youth—a childhood. In Shakespeare’s monologue there is a part about being a lover, and I feel like the war erases this part and sends a person straight to being a soldier. Unfortunately, in its literal sense.
“Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth.”
Diana Horetska:
Being a teenager, a “lover,” during full-scale war isn’t the best thing you could ever experience. On one side, there is youth with its energy, curiosity, and desire to dream big. On the other hand, some challenges make us feel older than we are—constant news of war, worries for our families, and questions about what the future will look like. Shakespeare once said, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” I often feel like that: sometimes I play the role of a carefree teenager, laughing with friends, and sometimes I play the role of someone much older, trying to stay strong and responsible. Even so, I сontinue to study, to grow, and to create in our reality. To be that person, who I am.
Maria Serebryanska:
People say that life is difficult, but have they ever thought about what Ukrainians’ lives are like? We go to bed every day with the fear of not being able to open our eyes the next morning. We go to bed with a feeling that it will be our last one. But when we wake up the next morning and see the consequences of the terrible night, the remains of yet another ruined building, we all wish to close our eyes and never see it again. However, the world doesn’t seem to be waiting for the day when we feel better. Life is going on, and we all have to pretend that we are just fine. We continue living our lives as if nothing has happened. Occasionally, it feels like I’m living a double life. At night, I’m a Ukrainian teenager who is terrified for her life, but in the broad daylight, I’m forced to be okay. That’s when these lines of Shakespeare’s monologue “All the world’s a stage” come to my mind: “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players; they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts…”
Ukrainians also have dreams, some plans, and goals for their future, and they deserve a long and prosperous life. Some of them want to have a good, well-paid job; others wish to enter their dream university. And all of them deserve it. But as for me, I really want all of this to end. I want to finally be able to smile and laugh freely, without the burden of so many lives that were lost in hope for better days. I feel the pain for every soul that passed away, and this pain somewhat shapes my personality and my perception of the world around me. I want to help Ukraine improve so that the heroes’ souls didn’t go to waste. I want them to feel proud of their fellow Ukrainians, who learned how to appreciate their country and culture.
Anastasia Nosevych:
Due to all the military conditions in our country nowadays, as most of us, I started to feel much more anxious than I did before the invasion.
So talking about my personal “lover age” I’d say that for me it’s about analyzing everything that happens around me, reviewing my personal values, and trying to do everything I can for my closest people and my homeland, as every other day can be the last one for me.
Marianna Zadachyna:
There are entrances and exits in my life, and the possibility of a sudden final exit lingers like a ghost. I often cycle through feelings of being lost, confused, and angry, yet I’m expected to keep studying and preparing for a future while managing ordinary days and problems. Even so, despite the common tragedies in my country, I must somehow find ways to enjoy what are supposed to be the best years of my life because I am more than just a survivor—I am a person.
Maria Lysa:
How is it to be a teenager today in Ukraine?
The day the full-scale invasion started, the lives of thousands of Ukrainians drastically changed. I remember the way I was too afraid of night attacks and strikes, so I couldn’t sleep normally for a couple of months—anxiety and panic attacks have been following me since that time. Luckily my home district and town weren’t attacked frequently. Although some houses and the river port were badly damaged.
War has changed a lot: perception, opinion, and thoughts about history, politics, life—everything I was too «young» to think and learn about before the invasion, before the day my eyes opened wide, and I saw the bitter truth of living near to russia.
I started noticing how russian propaganda has influenced people around me: their thoughts, critical thinking (rather lack of it) and mentality. I started recognizing the differences between some people around me and myself. In spring 2022 I decided to stop speaking russian so I switched to Ukrainian. It was a challenging decision in a russian-speaking town soaked in russian propaganda. My classmates thought that I was a «banderivka» and brainwashed because of the language I spoke to them. One day their hate and anger crossed the line—they wished me death in the classroom full of other students while I was solving the math problem near the blackboard.
That day I understood how massive the problem of brainwashing is and how long our nation has been under the russian impact, so we got such terrifying results nowadays.
Vladislav Vishnevsky:
It seems my life is accustomed to death. For the last 4 years, explosions, and corpses have become a daily routine, as ordinary as a cup of coffee in the morning or a bus trip to university. The usual case is when the city is under attack, and I, after preparing for the next day’s lectures at night, go to the balcony, smoke a cigarette, and gaze at sparkling fireworks in the blasted night sky and then go to bed, while behind the window drones are screaming someone’s deathbed sonata. Destruction around has become the background of studying, laughing, and love, so that way fear turned to indifference. Today I am rather a lover with a woeful ballad made to my mistress’ bleeding eyebrow. For the future, I desire to see and analyze the end of the process when traumatic experiences become the standard of life.
Daria Shvydka:
My Age
At the age of twenty, life looks very different for everyone. Some people already have children and are married, some open their businesses, others travel the world, and many students study at university, like at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, while still living with their parents. This age is full of dreams, choices, and countless expectations. At twenty it seems that you are already super adult and have understood the world. But the truth is that twenty-year-olds are simply “adult teenagers. ”We try to behave as if we are wise and independent, but inside we are still growing, questioning, and doubting. Have you ever heard about the “crisis of twenty”? It is when you suddenly want to drop everything and start a new life from scratch—to fly to the other side of the world alone or to do the most extreme things just to feel alive.
I am twenty, but I still do not know who I want to be when I “grow up,” and that is absolutely normal. I live with my parents, and that is normal too. I have not met the love of my life, and that is also normal. I have many plans and expectations, but occasionally I face what I call an “expectation hangover. ” It happens when your dreams finally come true, but the result is not what you imagined—like in childhood when you found out that magic doesn’t exist. My personal “expectation hangover” came after entering university. I am still not sure if I chose the right specialty or the right future profession. I cut myself on the broken glass of my pink glasses” about university. I thought it would be perfect, but reality turned out to be much more complicated. Still, being twenty is not about having all the answers. It is about living, making mistakes, and learning step by step. It is about searching for yourself and slowly shaping the person you want to become. And even though this age sometimes feels like a crisis, it is also a time full of energy, freedom, and hope.
Sophia Suhoverhova
I still remember the early morning I woke up to explosions—the day the full-scale war began. I was in the 10th grade then, and my world changed in a single moment. Now I am already in my third year at the university, the war still continues, shaping every lecture, every class, every thought about the future. Sometimes I feel like the “schoolgirl,” trying to focus on books and assignments while living through air raids. Other times I find myself in the role of “the lover,” waiting and worrying for relatives and friends who are on the front line. But despite that, every single time I dream of becoming “the justice,” when Ukraine will be free again.
Being a young woman now means carrying both knowledge and fear, determination and exhaustion. Women play many roles at once: breadwinners, volunteers and soldiers, teachers and healers.
My greatest hope is that my stage will one day be filled not with war, but with peace and new beginnings.
Oleksandra:
My partner and I live on the different banks of the Dnipro. One time an air raid alarm went off when she was making her way home from the date on the left bank. Despite leaving ahead of time to assure her safe return, with the easiest ways to cross the river shut down, her position was left hanging in the air. So she was to think of other possible ways to return home real fast, or she would be left with no way home left at all. Her luck was rotten that day, as her bus skipped her stop and the last metro train left just mere seconds before she arrived at the station. Nearing midnight we lost connection for about 20 minutes, and in my panic at the time I was sure that she must have been attacked or lost or happened to be near the enemy’s shahed or some other horrific thing must have happened to her. All turned out okay at the end, as she made it home safely just a little after the midnight curfew, but those last 20 minutes were the scariest in a long time.
Maryna:
Nowadays, being an adolescent in Ukraine feels like growing up much faster than you should. Many nights begin with the sound of shelling and running to shelters, and mornings start with a sense of relief that I’ve survived another bombardment. The most difficult part is living in constant uncertainty and anxiety, never knowing what will happen in the next few minutes.
Even in these circumstances I still try to plan my future. I go to university, work, build relationships, and try to get my driving license. I remind myself that being alive is already a reason to be grateful, and this war has taught me to live in the present and to appreciate every moment with my closest people.
Very often my thoughts return to my father, who’s now at the front line. Each time I try to call him, I feel anxious, wondering whether he’s woken up too. When he does not answer and I hear only the endless voicemail signal, the little girl inside me fills with fear. Yet when he finally calls back and speaks in his usual calm voice, I feel peace return for a while.
Although I try not to think about the worst scenarios, the news sometimes makes me imagine that this war could last for many years or even spread further. Still, I keep reminding myself of Shakespeare’s words: “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” My role now is to continue moving forward, to laugh, to dream about peace, and to trust that after the darkest night, my role in this play will guide me toward a brighter chapter.
Kristina Kostenko:
Being a teenager in Ukraine today is not easy. We live with the constant noise of news about war, worries for our families, and the pressure to study and plan for the future, even when the future seems uncertain. Sometimes I think Shakespeare was right when he said, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players,” because we teenagers have to play our roles, even when the script feels too heavy for our age. Still, I believe in my dreams. I want to study, travel, and build a life in peace. Our most difficult challenge is not to lose hope, and our greatest wish is that one day we will live in a country where we can be just young people without fear.
Roman Kachmar:
Nowadays, being a teenager in Ukraine is rather difficult and challenging. You usually encounter different problems and troubles due to air alarms, unstable life and missile or drone attacks. Because of all of that, you become tired and exhausted during your lessons at school or university after bombardments at night.
As William Shakespeare once said, “all the world`s a stage”, we can definitely be sure, that everything in this life depends on you, and only you can be your guide during your lifetime. No matter what outside factors influence you, it’s your time to come up on this stage and manage the life.
Being a teenager in Ukraine today feels like living two lives at once. On the one hand, we have the same dreams as our peers anywhere else, such as hanging out with friends, going to concerts, pulling all-nighters not because of fear, but because of laughter. On the other, reality presses down heavy as our nights are cut short by curfews. Instead of parties many of us spend long scary nights in shelters, sharing snacks in breaks between following where another missile is going to attack and trying to make jokes loud enough to cover the sound of blasts. The thought of “nightlife” that teenagers abroad take for granted feels almost unreal here, our version of it is waiting for diplomats to finally negotiate even a single quiet night without missiles.
Maria Sydorenko:
University doesn’t feel like a place for studying most of the time. You drag yourself into class with heavy eyes, trying to focus, but your body remembers every hour of the sleepless night. Sometimes it feels cruel, how are we supposed to learn new things when survival itself is already homework we didn’t choose? And still, we push on. Because in the middle of all this exhaustion and fear, there’s a stubborn hope that one day we’ll get to live like normal people, with plans that aren’t constantly interrupted by explosions, with nights meant for resting and not hiding. Until then, we carry both our teenage dreams and this impossible weight together.
Yaroslav Vonsevych
Being a teenage boy in Ukraine today is, in fact, a big challenge. No one knows for sure what the future holds. And I am not an exception. That’s why it is better to start making plans for this future right now. But there is one problem: it is often difficult, and sometimes impossible, to combine studying, working, sports, and personal life. However, it is necessary in order to provide for yourself and your closest relatives.
As William Shakespeare said in his speech «All the world’s a stage» :
“All the world’s a stage…
And one man in his time plays many parts”
Indeed, first your mom and dad take care of you, and you live your carefree childhood. Then you become an adult and take on responsibility for your parents, children, and homeland. So yes, my goal is to make those around me happy while trying not to forget about myself.
Alona Yakovenko:
Today, a teenager’s life in Ukraine assumes a lot of obstacles, since the full-scale invasion has influenced every aspect of it. For instance, the studying process became more complicated. Air alarms, filling the space with the terror-striking noise, bring students a huge number of psychological distresses: people have to find a reliable cover, overthinking about the safety. Moreover, lessons need to be conducted in shelters, which brings additional discomfort.
Overall conditions get much worse when explosions are heard. Fear envelops every part of your body, so it is difficult even to breathe. The only thing you can do is to ask loved ones, “Are you alright?” and continue scrolling down the news channels.
Besides, I can’t help but mention the effect on the personal life. Many relatives have left the country, which makes communication with them much more difficult. Others remained in unsafe cities, leaving me worried about their well-being.
Ultimately, all of the above once again proves that war brings nothing but death and destruction.
‘War… war never changes’.
Dina K:
All the world is a stage, and our life is filled with blessings and downsides. The spectacle we play a part in might mercilessly nurture or wink and charmingly smile. Young age is a rather disputable one. On the one side it is the dexterous and enthusiastic flow of life, but the other side is full of drawbacks and shabby corns. Unintentionally, in ominous circumstances, we lack the time to be mischievous. The war fortified our personalities; we must be courageous and shouldn’t give up at any cost. The drops of childhood swept across, and despite it, young people are growing, sleeping, and studying brick by brick, even being on the brink. We appreciate each euphoric moment, also sincerely respect our relatives, friends, and ability to promote them, being cheek by jowl.
Whatever it takes, everyone wishes you to succeed in every aspect of your life and create a decent living under the peaceful sky.
