Interviewer of the Year: Runner-up

For many students and teachers around the world this time of the year is spring break. If they have family in other states or countries they can visit, students can play freely in their backyards, have sleepovers, they can go to beaches, amusement parks, and playgrounds. However, for Hazel (name changed for privacy), a coding teacher at a school in the Bay Area, her family doesn’t get to do any of that. In the following interview, I discovered more things about her family in Ukraine and how the war has affected them. 

Hazel was born in the Eastern part of Ukraine in a place called Dnipro. She lived there for the first eight years of her life and has fond memories of where she grew up. Thinking back on her childhood, Hazel shares some of the things she used to be able to do in the Ukraine. “I lived in a 5 story apartment building, and I lived on the 5th floor. My apartment had a balcony that was facing a park, with these beautiful tall trees. I really loved hanging out on the balcony, reading books and meditating. I loved playing in the park in front of my building. That was my favorite place. There was our building, a small road and then the park was right there. And behind my building, there was a field full of different wild flowers in the spring. And across from there was a high school, and the high school had a garden. So as a kid, I loved going there and climbing fruit trees, and then gathering fruits whenever they were in season, like cherries. I remember rollerblading, and spending summers by the Azov Sea with my Mariupol family.” 

Now, the pictures of Ukraine we see in the news show a different story. Buildings look like a tornado or earthquake have ripped through them; it does not look like a happy, cheerful place to read or meditate. 

When describing how she feels about the current conflict about Russia, Hazel says, “I am sad, disappointed and angry. Ukrainians feel and act as one defending their country, their families, their children and their future. They act humane and I’ve never been more proud to be Ukrainian.” 

Hazel’s voice is just one out of millions, but her message echoes the voices of so many others who still matter, and who all seem to say: “Stop this war, it’s not right.”