As soon as I found out that I would be coming to Ukraine for a visit, I sent a message to my good friend Pavlo and told him that we HAD to get a group of our classmates together. This is the year we celebrated 20 years since we graduated high school! Right away we started a group conversation with whomever we found on Facebook and from private contacts. We decided to meet up on September 6th at the beautiful Chopin restaurant. I was very much looking forward to the meeting as it’s been YEARS since I had seen some of these people.
The thing is that in Ukraine people you graduate with are not just kids of the same age that happened to be in your classes the same year as you. These are the kids that you know for ten years as they tend to keep the class make up the same from 7 till 17. So, you see, the majority of these friends I was meeting were not just friends, they were almost like family. We all share this bond that can’t be broken because of all the life experiences we had gone through during our formative years. We had happy moments together, dramatic moments together and really low moments together. From celebrating each other’s accomplishments to secret feelings of jealousy, from teacher’s yelling at us as a group (or singling someone out) to all of us being unpleasantly surprised by the difficulty of a test.
We have done a lot together through the years and although friends groups shifted from time to time, we knew each other pretty well. I have mostly been friends with the boys my early years but I had a couple of close girlfriends too. The fact that I left after my 10th grade (our 11th grade was our Senior year) definitely changed the dynamics of the class and our friendships. The summer before I left for the states to be a foreign exchange student, I wrote in my journal about my feelings and worry that life would never be the same no matter what happens. I wrote how I knew that my relationships with my classmates would change and I knew that I would miss out on so much of “senior year stuff”. I came back to Ukraine in June, right in time to take my final exams and receive a diploma plus attend the graduation ceremony and ball. I was right, I had a lot of new ideas and values in my mind when I came back and things were not the same. But as a young 16 year old, I moved on quickly and couldn’t dwell on these changes as I was bound for BYU, new life and new dreams waiting for me.
To many of my classmates I remain a success story--and I am first to admit that I am so happy with my life and achievements. It is incredible to reunite and to talk to them about their lives, their families, where their life has taken them. We all grew up together! And how different we all are!
Okay, enough of deep thinking:) I am just excited to share all these pictures we took that evening. We were supposed to meet at 6 pm, and this is what I showed up to--Oles’ and Pavlo were the only ones there although the table was set for twenty:). Pavlo said we needed to practice positive thinking and posted the picture of the empty table to our group chat. And sure enough....slowly...people trickled in!
This was our first attempt at the of a group selfie. A few more joined us a little later in the evening.
‘
The thing is that in Ukraine people you graduate with are not just kids of the same age that happened to be in your classes the same year as you. These are the kids that you know for ten years as they tend to keep the class make up the same from 7 till 17. So, you see, the majority of these friends I was meeting were not just friends, they were almost like family. We all share this bond that can’t be broken because of all the life experiences we had gone through during our formative years. We had happy moments together, dramatic moments together and really low moments together. From celebrating each other’s accomplishments to secret feelings of jealousy, from teacher’s yelling at us as a group (or singling someone out) to all of us being unpleasantly surprised by the difficulty of a test.
We have done a lot together through the years and although friends groups shifted from time to time, we knew each other pretty well. I have mostly been friends with the boys my early years but I had a couple of close girlfriends too. The fact that I left after my 10th grade (our 11th grade was our Senior year) definitely changed the dynamics of the class and our friendships. The summer before I left for the states to be a foreign exchange student, I wrote in my journal about my feelings and worry that life would never be the same no matter what happens. I wrote how I knew that my relationships with my classmates would change and I knew that I would miss out on so much of “senior year stuff”. I came back to Ukraine in June, right in time to take my final exams and receive a diploma plus attend the graduation ceremony and ball. I was right, I had a lot of new ideas and values in my mind when I came back and things were not the same. But as a young 16 year old, I moved on quickly and couldn’t dwell on these changes as I was bound for BYU, new life and new dreams waiting for me.
To many of my classmates I remain a success story--and I am first to admit that I am so happy with my life and achievements. It is incredible to reunite and to talk to them about their lives, their families, where their life has taken them. We all grew up together! And how different we all are!
Okay, enough of deep thinking:) I am just excited to share all these pictures we took that evening. We were supposed to meet at 6 pm, and this is what I showed up to--Oles’ and Pavlo were the only ones there although the table was set for twenty:). Pavlo said we needed to practice positive thinking and posted the picture of the empty table to our group chat. And sure enough....slowly...people trickled in!
This place was beautiful! Live music and all!
We had so much food too, in a true Ukrainian tradition:)
I sat next to my sweet friend Yarina Proskurovska (on the right).
This was our first attempt at the of a group selfie. A few more joined us a little later in the evening.
Yulia and I. I’ve known her since we were in preschool!
Yarina and I.
Deep in thought--Dana (we visited her in Krakow!), Taras (he lives in my mom’s apartment building) and my good buddy Pavlo.
Yarina, Kramarchuk (he is a dentist too) and I.
Olia Shushnyak (Shusha) and I. She was one of my best friends during high school. Missing Vika.
I will go top row first: Oleg Klim (he was the kid who was always ahead of me in the register), Oleg Parakuda (my VERY good friend, got a Golden Medal for graduating summa cum laude, lawyer in Kyiv now, has two kids), Pavlo (my friend through all these years, has a son name Marko), yours truly (graduated summa cum laude as well but didn’t get a Golden Medal because wasn’t physically present at the Ukrainian school my senior year-hahaha), Yarina (she is a massage therapist now), Mar’yana Dubova (and artist, amazing friend, one of the kindest and wise friends I had), Misha Senko (also graduated with a Golden Medal, a math wiz, great guy, has a kid), Mikola Kovtalo (a good man who has four kids and works for the railway).
Bottom row: Yulia (she is also a lawyer and has a kid), Nazar Kramarchuk (Kramar, a dentist in Lviv), Yulia (she has a kid and is a professor in Lviv!), Taras Tanchak (former professional football player, fun party guy-hahaha, has two kids), Tetiana Timchak (yes--Tanchak and Timchak were the ongoing joke with every new teacher we got. She works for the Hilton Hotel chain, lives half of the year in Dubai and half in Ukraine), Olha Shushnyak (my very cheerful friend, has a son), Dana (lives in Krakow, has a kid), Duma Oles’ (used to be best friends with Tanchak trough school, fun guy, married with kids).
Fine, I’ll do some close ups to:)
We heard a lot of funny toasts! I believe this was around midnight here. After a bit after midnight, we settled our bill and decided that the night is still young, so we walked over to a hotel nearby that had a lounge open all night.
‘
A few people had to catch a taxi or had something early in the morning, so they had to leave, but the majority stayed, which was almost hilarious. This was probably around 2 or 3 in the morning, and I was the only one with a jet leg (so it wasn’t so late for me) and not drinking alcohol. We had a fantastic time! So much to catch up on! We all knew it will be a very long time before we got together like this once again. We were missing a few good friends that didn’t live in Lviv, but still, this was a great turn out! Oleg Parakuda drove (well, his driver drove him) from Kyiv to Lviv to make sure he doesn’t miss this reunion (and a business meeting), so I know it was a very special event for everyone!
We took a taxi to my apartment building at like 4:30 am and that was another funny story:)) It was kind of cool to feel so young and carefree again, with all our school memories flooding over me. And so great to see these people who played a big part in my life growing up.
The following morning, I probably slept till 10, hung out with my mom till the evening when I she put me on the train to Kyiv. Oleh Parakuda had offered to pick me up late from the train station (the train arrived at midnight) and take me to Katia’s house so she didn’t have to drive at night. I got to Katia’s house and crashed on the couch for the night. In the morning, I got to spend a little bit of time with Mika and Petia and Katia:) Love these guys!!!
And then Katia took me to the airport!
What a whirlwind adventure! So glad I took the time to visit Ukraine:) Hopefully, it won’t be too long before I go back to see it.
No comments:
Post a Comment