English is a Language of Opportunities

My name is Anastasiia. My great-grandmother gave me my name. I love my name very much. When I arrived in the US, I used Stacy as my nickname but now I say Anastasia. People try to pronounce it and it’s very cool.

I was born in a little town near Donetsk. When I started at university, I moved to Odessa. I lived in Odessa for more than ten years. I love Odessa so very much because I love the people. They have a high level of humor and they are all very kind and fantastic people.

Donetsk and Odessa are very different. In Donetsk, the people are strong and powerful but in Odessa the people are funnier, easy going. I think these two towns give me different sides of my personality. Donetsk gives me strength and Odessa makes me relaxed, to smile and be open to people.

In my family we spoke Russian, but in school I studied Ukrainian and Russian. All my subjects were in Ukrainian. We also studied English. Five times a week, we had English lessons. It is not a problem for me to speak both Ukrainian and Russian.

When I was eight, I knew that I would be a lawyer because I love fairness. That’s why I chose to be a lawyer. I finished my education in Ukraine. I’m a lawyer in Ukraine. I have a barrister’s license and I was a judicial assistant in my country for six years. I really loved my job.

I would have headaches all the time and I couldn’t sleep at night. I could only sleep two or three hours a day. It was very damaging for me and that’s why my husband said I had to leave. It was a very difficult decision for him and for me because it was more his decision and not mine. I’m okay now but that day was awful.

We lived in Odessa at the beginning of the war. We didn’t move anywhere. It was less dangerous then than it is now. My family now lives in the next region over. It’s very, very close to the border. They live close to the fighting, only about 10 kilometers away. All the time I think about my parents because it is very dangerous.

My husband still lives in Odessa because our men cannot leave Ukraine and he also works in court like me. I don’t know when I can see him. It’s very hard.

I now live in Bowling Green, Kentucky. I wasn’t too sure of my first impressions of Bowling Green because I lived in a big city all my life. Odessa is a very big city, more than a million people, and Bowling Green is a very little town. But I think it’s a very good town for me to start my life in the US because maybe a big city can damage me. Now I feel very comfortable in Bowling Green.

I felt awful. Now I have lived in the United States for six months. I found a job. I started to go to English classes and now it’s easier. Now I love English because people gave me this chance to love English. They speak with me, they can explain to me some words when I don’t know something, they don’t laugh when I don’t understand something, and all of the people who are around me give me power to want to study English. It’s no longer about what I need, it’s more about what I want.

I love my English teachers. They have a very nice accent. I understand everything that they say. For me, they find some interesting games and different tasks not only for reading and speaking. We have three teachers and they all are very cool. They give us energy. I feel like they are my family. They want to know all about our problems. They discuss different situations, they give advice. It’s not only about language learning, it’s also something more. I feel very comfortable with these people. They make me feel like I belong. I feel that they understand me.

I met a lot of different people with different cultures and with different knowledge about life and for me, it’s difficult to speak with them because we have different accents and sometimes I get very confused. But they give me another view on my life and life around me. My English classes give me the ability for a social life because when I didn’t go to English classes, I only sat at home and I had no friends. I had no one with whom I could speak. That’s why it’s a new opportunity for me to go to English class.

Knowing English has helped me find a job, which was a very big opportunity for me. A job gives me money and some good quality of life. I work at Kroger. I’m a cashier. I don’t like to work with money and I don’t like to work with technology. It was very funny when they said to me, “You will be a cashier.” Why a cashier? I didn’t want to be a cashier. But now, you know, I met a lot of new people in my life. I love to speak with customers. They are very friendly. They sometimes buy me chocolate candy. They tell me a lot of interesting stories, and they also can help me improve my English all day. I speak and speak and speak with them and it’s helping.

You must find people who can help you study English. It’s very important to have these people. Without these people, you can find motivation, but it’s not enough.

When I’m at work, sometimes I hear my native language. It is amazing. I had one situation a week ago; a woman and a man. They spoke Russian and they didn’t know that I could speak Russian too. They were talking with each other and I said, “Oh, you speak Russian!” They are from Ukraine too. I was very glad to hear my language.

Sometimes I think about being a lawyer in the United States but I know that in America, education is very expensive and I feel like I need to improve my English. Then maybe I’ll try.

If I had to do it all again, I wouldn’t want to change anything. What happened, happened and at the time, it needed to happen.

I never imagined that I would be in the US. It never was my goal. I really want to see my parents and my husband again. That’s very important to me. I hope the war in Ukraine will stop and I can go back because I had a really good life in Ukraine. I am between the United States and Ukraine. I’m not here and I’m not there. I had to stop my life in Ukraine and start a new life in the United States. It was difficult but now I have a new experience. Maybe if I had stayed in Ukraine, I would have never tried something new. Now, I have this chance to try something new.