First of all, I found this virtual tour heavy and extremely upsetting. It left me with a pit in my stomach. I chose this tour because I was so hurt by the incidents in Ukraine a little while back. My social media pages would be flooded with reels of people screaming in terror and bomb blasts ringing through their ears. I’d find my heart racing and my fingers trembling because of the hurt I could hear in their yelling. It wasn’t just hurt, though. It was extreme fright, horror, and shock.

On both sides of my family, they are first generation. They came here from Italy and Germany. They have these rooted histories of life and celebration of creation and individuality. Seeing my father raise a strong and successful family, I feel it is routed through a passion that he has in his soul. These innocent people have that angst for life, yet it isn’t to succeed anymore. It is to survive.

Watching this gave me heartache, yes, but it gifted me with something else: to always be fervent. I know that many people stress the importance of living with purpose, to experience life at the fullest, to go after every dream you have conjured up. Yet, there is nothing more true that I have come across. When we are born in America, dreams always come realities if we work for them. In other countries, someone’s same passion as yourself can be only but a daydream. I pray for the city of Irpin, and for all of its civilians.