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“НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, ГРУДЕНЬ 2019 WWW. UNWLA.ORG 15 Writing Articles for Our Life Made Easy b y Marianna (Szczawinsky) Crans After joining the UNWLA, I received my first copy of Our Life and was d isappointed that it was all in Ukrainian and I could not read it. For a variety of reasons I never had the opportunity to keep up my Ukrainian language skills. To begin with, I was a toddler when we first immigrated to the United States and settled in NY S tate. Both of my parents had to work, so most of my early formative years were spent with the lady who babysat with me, a lady who did not speak Ukrainian. Moreover, my parents did not realize how easy it was for children to be bilingual and didn’t push me to speak in their native language so I could acclimate better to our "new country." Final ly, with money being tight, they opted to pay for a Catholic education for me, but this came with a trade - off because it meant they could not afford to send me to Ukr ainian sum- mer camp. Luckily, I could still understand some of the household Ukrainian I gr ew up with, and I honored our traditions and customs as my parents did. In fact, I joined the UNWLA for a re lated rea- son: to learn more about my culture, traditions, art forms and homeland, and boy did I learn a lot! Needless to say, when Our Life went bi lingual, I was delighted because this meant I could finally read about other branches’ activities and about the important work the UNWLA does for Ukraine and our Ukra inian Diaspora. I never thought of myself as “a writer” even though I have always been abl e to write school - as- signed compositions, book reports, term papers, etc., without too much trouble. Once I got going, the words would flow fairly easily, and I learne d to edit and tweak my assignments before handing them in. The death of my beloved f ather was the catalyst for me to write my first article for Our Life. My story was about the importance of learning about our parents’ trials and tribulations during WWII, when so many of our countrymen were sub- jugated under Soviet rule and were then displaced a nd treated horribly by the Nazis. In this first arti- cle I wrote that learning and understanding what my father had endured and what spurred him to escape to freedom h ad opened my eyes to the strength of his convictions. Writing the article was also a way o f working through my grief and honor- ing a simple man who did so much in his lifetime and achieved his hopes and dreams through hard work and perseverance. After seei ng my loving tribute to my father in print, I was hooked. Since then, I have written many more articles, and these have become a cre- ative release for me. Most of them are about our UNWLA branch activities. Over the years, I real- ized that it was Tamara, the English - language edi- tor of Our Life , who makes my stories look better in print! Tamara ha s become a close friend, and it was after a recent discussion with her (a discussion that focused on our mutual dis appointment about not seeing more articles from ot her branches), we came to the conclusion that many of you, our UN- WLA Sisters, hesitate to submit an article because you are under the impression that you cannot write well. To this I say “Nonsense!” Anyone can write, and most of us do it regularly without even think- ing about it: letters, recipes, reports, summaries, etc. And if you think your w riting skills are weak or lacking (as I first felt), I’ll pass along the answer I got from Tamara the first time I mentioned this about my own writing: “That’s why Go d made edi- tors! We exist to help you to find the right words and still sound like you!” S o, in that spirit of exploration, I encour- age YOU to try your hand at writing and submit- ting an article for OL (in Ukrainian or in English) and find a voice for your branch, your activities and your achievements. You may just surprise yourself and find tha t you enjoy sharing your stories with the rest of us! And if you keep at it, you’ll find that each article or story becomes progressively easier to write! Editor ’s Note: The author, a member of UNWLA B ranch 95, is a frequent contributor who has also be- come a long - distance friend and phone buddy. I am touched and humbled by her description of me, but I hope that her words resonate with readers and encourage them to become writers. Meanwhile, Merry Christ mas! My first present just arrived (not by sleigh or FedEx or Amazon but via email). Thanks, Ma- rianna.
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