Lutsk, radio, law, military service, Poland and Canada: not chapters that cancel one another, but parts of one life.
At the history faculty of Lesya Ukrainka Volyn State University, I became involved in the student union for a simple reason: nobody else wanted to do it. Most students did not know why the organization existed or why a percentage of their scholarship disappeared into dues.
I started alone, first trying to answer those questions for myself and then for friends — Natasha, Serhii, Misha, Roma and Vitia. By the time we handed the work to the next team in 2000, the union had acquired meaning, respect and real strength. Thousands of students stood behind it.
In 1999, during the national Student Republic project, I was elected ‘student mayor of Volyn’. Our history faculty union bureau entered as a team independent of the university administration. We won because unity proved stronger than administrative resources.
Politics tried to recruit me afterward. I chose radio instead — the work I actually loved. Later came law, civic work, military service, Poland and Canada. None erased the previous life. Each changed how I understand voice, rules and responsibility.
The road here is not a claim to exceptional strength. It is evidence that collective strength can change what first looks merely formal.
