Ukrainian exchange student living in North Texas saddened by what’s happening in Ukraine

GAINESVILLE, Texas – A Ukrainian trade university student who has been dwelling and mastering in North Texas explained she’s felt excessive guilt about what is actually taking place in her homeland.

She claimed she feels like she’s in limbo, living listed here right up until June and not being aware of what may happen following.

The 16-calendar year-old was anticipating a usual American practical experience in North Texas, and for the most aspect, issues have been normal below.

Again property, however, her beloved types are in the middle of war. 

A tennis racquet was anything foreign to Tetiana Shevenko.  

“It was totally new for me,” she explained.

The Ukrainian exchange scholar never ever held one right until she moved to Gainesville last August. 

“Almost everything was different. Anything was new,” she mentioned. 

She’s now a member of her higher school’s JV tennis team. 

Regretably, for each and every bit of enjoyable she’s having in the U.S., she stated she feels responsible because loved ones again property are at war.

“It is not supposed to materialize,” she stated.

Shevenko’s host household imagined it’d be nice to have a “sister” for their 8-calendar year-previous. 

They decided to host the teen for a university 12 months. They were being shocked when six months into her keep, Russia invaded Ukraine.

 “The full realization that her environment has been turned upside down right away,” 1 of her host mother and father, Martin Phillips, stated. “When she’s equipped to go dwelling, she’s not likely home to the dwelling that she still left.”

Additional: Russia-Ukraine War Coverage

It’s at this time not safe for Shevenko, who was to begin with scheduled to return in June, to go dwelling.

She’s from a small village in central Ukraine of about 3,000 people today that is just a two and a fifty percent hour generate from Kharkiv, which has been reduced to spoil by Russian bombs.

It is just 4 several hours absent from the funds of Kyiv, which has been under frequent assault.

“It is difficult to see anyone go as a result of that, yeah,” Phillips added. “You cannot think about what that is like.”

“A great deal of folks are asking like, ‘How’s my relatives? How are they performing?’” Shevenko said.

Her spouse and children is safe, having said that, those who are not are on her brain.

“You feel like it’s your individual loved ones, like, all these 44 millions of people,” she reported.

For now, she’s trying to get pleasure from her remain in North Texas. Exhibiting off techniques, like artwork on screen at university, when choosing up a couple of new hobbies.

Hoping, sooner somewhat than later, to return household with inspiration.

“You’re just ready,” she mentioned. “To support, to construct, a new even far better Ukraine.”