Today I was supposed to get together with my besties for my birthday. Buy cake and some dry white. We were going to listen to music, hug each other and take silly selfies. I had a new dress all ready. I even had a toast all prepared. And instead…

Instead, another life began, abruptly and unexpectedly, a kind of limbo, full of expectations and fear.

In the birthday photo, I was supposed to be in a designer dress, wearing a crazy wreath and looking happily towards the future. But in this photo, I’m in a hastily-bought jacket, wearing borrowed scarves, in beautiful Krakow, looking at the sun and thinking: What the f*ck!

I should have been thinking about gifts and guests, how not to stain my dress, how not to be first to get drunk. Instead, I was only thinking about the news and about how to find a job.

I really hope, I really want the war to end, so that we can all get together, so that there is some dry white, a cake and happiness! So that I can put on that dress, so that everyone is beautiful and happy, and around us only peace!

Nadya, Kyiv