You are a survivor!
Hi buddy,
I heard you are distressed.
I sympathise with you my friend.
If you allow, I’ll share my experience of 2014, the year that taught me strength and hope.
As you know, I was born in Ukraine, Donetsk, and once my life settled in England, I continued visiting it regularly to see my family and look after my business there.
This business was a dream come true, it created that vital connection between two places I loved and considered home, I even called it London-Donetsk. It was a result of hard work and sheer determination. I had an online shop supplying high quality goods from UK to Ukraine. I had a partner in Donetsk, Maria, a family friend and a trustworthy character.
It was my baby and required the same amount of time and same dedication as a new born. I invested all my money, my spare time, my heart into it. I never took profit out so could reinvest and let it grow.
The efforts paid off and in our 4th year we were close to turning nationwide.
Then the war in Ukraine happened.
Even though I was in London, I experienced all the horrors of it. My poor parents lived in the war-stricken city, their plans for comfortable retirement destroyed, everything they worked for diminished. I lived for the news, being so scared for my parents, angry and sad. Eventually they had to move and build a new life somewhere else, but that’s another story.
Maria, my business partner in Donetsk, used the war as an opportunity and through an intricate web of lies and deceit robbed me of my money and ruined the business.
When I understood what she’d done, I was devastated. In denial. Shocked.
December of 2014 brought another tragedy, I’ll share it with you another time, but as a result I entered 2015 totally broke, exhausted and lost.
2015 was my year of self-discovery.
I got the first job offered, working for an angry person. I could not say a word because I needed to survive. I was so afraid for so long that at the end the fear did not matter anymore. I was stripped of my ideas, of my ego until the only core survived.
And that somebody within me said out loud “Stop it! I demand respect!”
For once in my life I mattered to myself. Not my achievements, not my possessions, not a picture society wanted to see. Me. Genuine Me.
That was the beginning. I will write to you what happened next, how I turned things around and reinvented myself.
For now all I want to say, I acknowledge your worries and fears. Trust me, we, human beings are made of much stronger stuff and you will survive this! You will learn how to fly again and I am here to support you.
Take care,
Your Oksana xx
