You might have noticed that there are far more girls in my class than boys. I’m not sure why. It just happened that way. I quite liked it.

I remember showing my classmates in Tynda a school folder of my class in Krasnoyarsk, and they said the boys over there were handsome, and that the ones they had were jerks. That is Krasnoyarsk we were lucky. I wanted to disagree, but I think they have a point. 

I don’t remember enough to tell you a whole story about each person in my class. I mean, if I racked my brain and gave you all the stuff you would ever need to know, then maybe. I have put off writing this, but it’s time now. Just now the memories are less vivid than they used to be. 
There is Влад- Vlad over on the very left. He is the boy who has thrown a jacket over his shoulder, in the first photo. He was a tough boy, strong, serious. The man. I don’t remember much about him. But that is the impression I have. I hope it’s accurate.

Максим- Maksim. Basically Max. He’s the one at the top with the giant eraser in the first photo. He had braces. I thought this was pretty strange because not many people got braces in Russia. Teeth are straight enough. If you have certain braces, you can’t have tea. Not that we would have much of a choice in Russia since the cafeteria served tea almost every day. Braces would be a bit of a problem in Russia. Tea was important. Perhaps second to oxygen for some. He liked video games a lot and would sing an irritatingly repetitive tune to himself a lot of the time. He was obsessed with video games and was exceptionally smart. One year he was super close to getting a certificate. Ironically, I.T or computers or media or whatever you want to call it was the subject he was lacking a good grade in- needed to get the reward. Apparently making something on a computer is much different than enjoying someone else’s digital creation. However, if you want to write well, you need to read heaps. I guess he might have been a little stubborn. He got 5’s on average for every subject except for one 3. As in mostly A’s and one C. Because if he didn’t like a subject, there was no convincing him to put any extra work into it. I think he would have been a nice friend. But I was pretty eager to just stick to making friends with girls back then. Now I’ll be friends with girls or boys. 

Тимофей – Timofei- that means Timothy. He often sat next to me in class. Because of the seating plan. I didn’t mind. He was quiet. Happy. Kind. I can’t shake the feeling that we had something in common, but I can’t quite figure it out. Anyway, he wasn’t quite as burly as other boys. Gentlemanly, I guess. Did he like Art?

I’ve already told you a bit about Арсений- Arseniy. He is on the very left of the second photo. I think he was Kyrgyz. He was the only kid I knew beforehand when I started school. I don’t think I noticed that he was from another country. Besides, I also was. I guess that meant we had a thing or two in common. Prejudice is taught. If it isn’t taught, if cautions aren’t, if fear isn’t, children know no limits. 

Arseniy adored science fiction. He wanted to go to Mars. I don’t know if he still does. I considered him a friend. Even though he was a boy. If the teacher needed us to line up, and instructed for a girl and boy in a pair, we would walk together. With childlike dreams of wondering who I would marry when I grew up, he was one of the people I wondered about. If I knew that we would move, I wonder what that would change. Definitely something. Almost everything. Perhaps I would be as quick to make friends. Maybe I’d be quicker. I guess I’ll never know.



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