Meeting a classmate 20 years later

On September 7, it was Labor Day, so I had a three-day weekend, and I decided to fly to Brooklyn, New York, to see a classmate whom I had last seen on June 20, 2006.

The last time we saw each other was at our high school graduation. It was in the city of Neryungri, in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). Three days later, I left for Kyiv, Ukraine, returned to my homeland. Some time later Ihor moved to Yakutsk. We could never have imagined that 20 years later we would meet again, let alone in the United States.

I already wrote a post, 20 years after school graduation.

I have absolutely no desire to communicate with or see many of my former classmates because they are chauvinists and people brainwashed by propaganda.

But Ihor has an adequate position on the criminal war started by Russia. He is also a patriot of his native land, Yakutia. He did and continues to do everything he can to preserve the history, culture, and values of his people. Because of this, in 2023, he and his family had to leave their hometown and their native land.

I’m glad that at least a few adequate and reasonable people are still left among my former classmates.

I was very glad to see him in Brooklyn. We talked a lot about the past, remembered those great school years, talked about how our lives had turned out over these past 20 years… about politics and other things.

I spent only two days in Brooklyn, but for me it felt like diving into the past…

We even recreated one of our old photos together.

I hope that in the near future we will be able to visit together both my native land, Ukraine, and Ihor’s homeland, Yakutia. But not simply Yakutia as a part of the Russian Federation, but an independent and sovereign Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).