“Now I’m much better, I’ve also made many friends with Ukrainian boys: I started by talking to them, because having the same language it was easier”. Julia she is 17 years old and arrived in Omegna on 10 March last year from Ukraine. The day after the war broke out, her family packed up and left.
«On 24 February there was a lot of traffic in Lviv, it was impossible to leave the city: so we left the next day. The shops had all been empty since morning, no bread or water. I remember that even at the petrol pumps there was a huge queue and the feeling was that they had raised the prices. There was a limit for both fuel and bank withdrawals, around 5 thousand hryvnias (about 125 euros, ed). There were so many people dressed in military clothes who controlled the streets and compliance with the curfew, which already started at ten on February 24th and forced people to keep the lights off in the house”.
From Lviv to a village in the countryside 50 kilometers away, for two weeks, then to Poland. Julia and her cousins attended the endless queues of cars which, at the outbreak of war, took up to a week to cross the border. Instead, they crossed the border on foot in half an hour. «He shocked me how the Poles controlled almost nothing: it was enough for them to look you in the face. You might as well not have a passport, a birth certificate was enough.”
From Poland directly to Italy: Julia’s aunt, who has lived in Omegna for over ten years, picked her up and her cousins in Bologna and brought them to Piedmont, to her home. To date, Julia is the only one who has never returned to Lviv: she would like to, but her parents fear for her safety and for the rigidity that now applies to the necessary documentation.
He spent the first month at home waiting for a place at school, given the high demand from Ukrainian refugees. Being able to choose between a tourist address and one focused on finance and marketing, Julia opted for the latter: «At the beginning I felt like a sick person – she admits –, I didn’t know how to speak, how to respond, how to make myself understood». She met another Ukrainian boy in class, who returned home after just a month: «he was a bit closed and slept during class, he didn’t try to integrate himself either».
Slowly, however, things changed: a girl approached Julia and they became friends, speaking first in English and then in Italian. From there, more and more people helped her feel comfortable about her, including professors. Not all, however, as Julia recalls: «Some were immediately interested, they always asked me how I was doing and how I was in Italy and they helped me better understand the subjects. For others, on the other hand, it was as if it didn’t matter.”
She has always been there to support Julia during her settling in Italy his mother Nadia, who remained in Lviv. «It is difficult for any parent to know that their child is in a distant place, it is an almost unbearable burden – he tells us -. Many families have left together and are waiting for victory to return here to Ukraine, while we hear from our children sporadically and only for a few minutes”. Nadia has come to see her daughter in Omegna only once since the beginning of the conflict and communicating every day can be very difficult.
«My mother either works all day or all night. I go to school, to the gym and in the evening I often go out with friends. So it happens that we can’t talk to each other for a couple of days, but when I can, I call her: we’re far away but I do everything to maintain good communication”.
After the difficulties of the first weeks, Julia now leads what one would call a “normal life”, divided between study, gym and new friends. A good harmony was immediately created with her Ukrainians, especially with her peers who arrived in Omegna and its surroundings following the war. Bonding with the Italians, however, was not so simple: «You are Ukrainian, what can you answer, what can you know» some said. Julia, however, met many other people ready to open up and make her feel part of the community. “Some instead tried to understand me, they made that extra effort: now yes, now I’m better,” she reiterates, smiling. Last year’s summer camp in the oratory was then an opportunity to meet many young people and improve their knowledge of Italian: «Spending three weeks with them helped me a lot», she says.
After the holidays, Julia will start the third year of high school with her peers, as her aunt wanted when she enrolled. The idea is to finish your studies in Italywhere he found his new balance, without thinking too much about the future: “I still don’t know what I want to do after school, whether to stay here or go to another country or go back to Ukraine, it’s hard to say now”.
Julia greets us with a beautiful smile that conveys calm and serenity, the same feelings we felt listening to her words. Her impression is that of having met a girl who is aware of what she has been through and who is ready to face what will happen with determination, both in Italy and in Ukraine.