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The ‘Unissued Diplomas’ Exhibition Gallery by the Ukrainian American Cultural Association was extremely interesting and disheartening to see. All the people featured were around the same age as my peers and me, they had similar goals, interests, and hobbies as my friends. Their stories were familiar in a sense and made me imagine what it would feel like to be in their position or even the position of their friends and families. The exhibit itself is quite powerful and accomplishes its goal of showcasing and honoring the lives lost to war, it is an important portrayal of the devastation felt by everyday citizens in Ukraine and helps to inform outsiders of those feelings.

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The Unissued Diplomas Exhibit really was a heartbreaking thing to view. All these students that were shown at this event. I could really relate to them on a level. Some were the same age as me and all of them were college students just like me. Seeing all their different stories. How each of them was unique and had different passions just like myself. Seeing what their major was and the path in life they chose. Then how it suddenly ended due to a pointless war. It really was a sad but powerful symbol to represent all the lost lives that were taken because of this war. This exhibit was really amazing in bringing awareness to the Ukrainian war.

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This exhibit was really touching since it was one of the first times I was really able to put faces behind this tragedy, which made me feel more connected and more empathy for their loved ones as well. In specific, I was really touched by the exhibit of Vladyslav since he was also in the same major as I am and also had similar likings such as playing football. I cannot imagine having to go through what he did and I really admire his bravery.

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Yesterday night I attended the Pysanka Workshop hosted by the Ukrainian-American Cultural Association with two friends I brought along. I decorated a multi-colored polka-dot egg, the process was a lot more difficult and tedious than I thought it would be but it was also very relaxing and therapeutic to create. I really enjoyed the process and had a lot of fun speaking to everyone and trying snacks while trying to figure out better solutions to decorate. I am glad I took the time out of my day to participate in the event and now have better insight into the tradition and its importance.

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I went to the Unissued Diplomas exhibit/gallery walk and my takeaway is that all people lost as a consequence of war are all equally unjust. Some lives lost are unfair because some were just existing, doing their own thing, living in their own bubble, and they died as a consequence of merely existing in the "right" place at the wrong time. Equally alike, those who were courageous and went to the frontlines and lost their lives at young ages could never have lost their lives so easily were it not for the invasion. It's hard to think that I am in the same age range as those who lost their lives on the other side of the world because of war.

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The Ukrainian Exhibit in the DePaul Center was a very powerful experience for me. I was very moved by emotion when visiting. You see Ukrainians as individual people, making it a very personal event, instead of a war on a country as a whole. I was most upset by the biographies provided for each individual, and it was even more disturbing when I resonated with the individuals in the exhibition. Finally, I was very moved by the paragraph that explained how the individuals died. It did not avoid an uncomfortable and incredibly disturbing reality for these humans, and is (in my opinion) an important part to include in all of this, as it brings attention and truth to the real issue. 

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Reading about the very young lives lost in the war in Ukraine was very upsetting and stuck with me. It was very difficult to wrap my head around the fact that the people I was reading about had the same dreams as myself and my classsmates. It was very upsetting to think that their lives were cut so short and that each individual I read about was unable to fulfill what they had planned for the future due to war.

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Going to the Unissued Diplomas exhibit and seeing so many kids just like me who passed away was heart-wrenching. Whether it was Oleksandra, who liked learning languages, or Maksym, who enjoyed photography, or so many others, who enjoyed art, this exhibit very poignantly displays how these kids were just ordinary citizens like us, full of life, who had hobbies, talents, and plans for the future, and who had their lives violently taken from them. The saddest story for me was Leah Krylova. Her description says that they don’t know her story because her entire family died with her. There are probably so many other stories like Leah's, of entire families wiped out with nobody left to tell the story.

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From the video we watched in class and from our in-class workshop, I knew there was a lot of dedication and patience it took to make pysanka, but trying it with Depaul’s Ukranian-American Cultural Association was still much harder than I expected. Just applying the wax to the egg was difficult, and it only made the intricate designs that Ukrainians make on pysanka, with so many shapes and colors, all the more impressive. I tried to do a design on the egg, but the wax hardened too quickly. It was also a little difficult to dye the egg different colors for me, so my egg didn’t turn out perfect, but I enjoyed the event. Everyone was really welcoming, and willing to help.