I was chatting with one of the other volunteers at the the Ocalenie Foundation safe space for children in the Ukrainian Refugee Reception Point / Humanitarian Aid Center in Przemyśl, Poland. She is Polish and she has a 16-year old son. She said she thinks her son will probably leave Poland for university and may not come back when he graduates, because he says he doesn’t want to live in a former Communist country. I can understand his hankering to leave, because when I was his age I was also very eager to go out and explore the world beyond U.S. borders. Of course, the United States isn’t a former communist country; but I still thought the United States was a very staid and dull place where nothing very important or exciting happened — it seemed like all the “important” events were taking place somewhere else in the world.
With this in mind, I told my volunteer friend that I wish for her son, no matter where he goes, that he is always proud to be a Pole, because the Polish people are very resilient and courageous in the face of adversity. I know that is true after learning just a very little bit about Polish history. Considering the number of times Poland has been overrun by foreign armies over the course of history, I don’t think if I were a Pole I would have energy to invest in (re-)building and developing the homeland. Because, how can anyone predict the next time the country will be overrun and razed to the ground again? So I admire the tenacity and perseverence of the Polish people very much. But I also completely understand my friend’s son wanting to go out to see the world.