From early childhood, Daria was immersed in the arts
From early childhood, Daria was immersed in the arts. At nursery she was already having piano and singing lessons, and her teachers noticed her natural gift for music. She was a soloist in a vocal ensemble and performed in city concerts and competitions. But soon Daria’s family moved to another district, and she had to give up music. Six years later the young Daria felt a strong pull back to the world of sound and decided on her own to apply to music school to study guitar.
Throughout her childhood she also did aerobics, competitive ballroom dancing and pole fitness.
The start of the full-scale invasion was a turning point in how Daria saw herself. She immediately switched entirely to Ukrainian, even though she had grown up in a russian-speaking environment in the west of Luhansk region. Sheltering in the corridor during shelling, Daria began writing poems – it was how she worked through her feelings. Her mum recalls that outwardly her daughter stayed calm and level-headed at the time. She became an island of calm and support for her family and neighbours: she suggested games, cheered people up, supported them and played the guitar.
When there wasn’t a single child left in the area, Daria’s mum decided that they too would leave home. The shelling was getting more frequent and louder. For a long time Daria didn’t want to go and argued, but in the end she agreed on one condition – that she could take her pet rat, Syoma. She and her mum packed one backpack each: documents, a few pairs of socks, underwear, T-shirts to sleep in – and left their home. Daria had to leave behind the new guitar she had just been given for her birthday, because there wasn’t enough room on the evacuation bus even for people.
Eventually Daria and her mum ended up in western Ukraine. With all the moving, she went through four schools in a single year, constantly making and losing friends. Her mum recalls that Daria lost the will to study and had very little energy left. At the same time, she remained a very active volunteer: she was involved in the local youth community and ran projects to improve the neighbourhood.
At the camp, Daria found support above all from the mentors. She was looking for ways to recharge that she could use in everyday life, because her volunteering took a lot out of her. That’s how Daria first tried standing on a nail board – and it became her evening ritual. She also took to the tea ceremonies, and soon after coming home she bought her own tea set.
“This is my personal space. A space for thinking, for calming down, a time to hear myself,” she says.
Throughout the camp she was open to every activity: she listened to the mentors with interest, asked questions and wrote songs and poems.
After the camp we asked Daria’s mum what changes she had noticed:
“My girl came back uplifted and full of life. She’d love to live exactly that kind of life.”