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The Genius of IKEA
As we rebuild our lives, I am finding solace in putting together furniture
It has been a bizarre seven months since we left Russia. We have been forced for political reasons to renew our lives. It has been a tough but sweet time for my family.
It also makes me think how grateful I am for the Swedish company IKEA. I am grateful because IKEA makes me feel so stupid but in a good way.
We had to leave
Some have asked me, “Why did you leave?” They suggest that we could have stayed in Russia; that we weren’t forced out. These comments are, well, ignorant. There is no way we could have stayed in that society now.
We left on February 26th and everything we knew, loved, and owned is now stuck in Russia. My 5-year-old son has been forced to do an express growing up by watching the news in the countless cafes we have eaten in the many different countries we passed through seeking our new life.
With the war talk and news everywhere, he has sadly absorbed probably too much — like millions of other children — and just enough to know that the Ukrainian kids on the playground might not like him because he is Russian. We dealt with that and now his newest best friend is a 4-year-old from Kyiv.
