Iryna, 34 years old
Minsk-Vilnius-Minsk-Marmaris-Warsaw
Portrait of Joy the Spaniel in a Frame

As long as I can remember, I dreamed of having a dog. After two years of arguments with my father, he finally let me choose a breed, and on my 14th birthday, we got a Russian spaniel puppy.
He stayed with us for 15 years, through several moves and a couple of serious illnesses.

One day, my mom called me at work, and through her tears, I heard that our Joy was dying. I dropped everything and went to the village to hold his paw one last time. He passed away in peace, quietly, among his family. We buried him in the village, on a hill where you can see the sunset every day.

A few months later, I got a tattoo of his image on my right arm. And my tattoo artist gave me the draft drawing she used to prepare for this tattoo. This small image of my dear Joy always stands in my home, in place of an icon.

Alexandr, 39
Minsk-Warsaw
Box for small things

A simple, not the most convenient in size (a bit bulky), sometimes opening by itself in a bag, metal box for small items (threads, buttons) was bought in the hypermarket "Prostor" in 2014-15.
Purchased to store items that can be used to roll cigarettes, namely: a rolling machine, tobacco, 6 mm filters, papers, and sometimes a toothpick.

The box and the passport are the two main things that are always in my backpack.
In 2016, a sticker with my face appeared on the lid of the box, as a joke.
Коробка была со мной на всех протестах 2020 в Минске, в автозаке, на Окрестина, в Жодино (2 недели за дверью камеры в рюкзаке, табак за это время подсох и стал неприятным).

The box moved with me to Poland, went to Minsk to get things and returned to Poland again.
Here it is with me every time I leave the apartment.

Jana, 34
Minsk-Warsaw
Pendant-coin

This pendant is a copy of an antique silver coin. If I am not mistaken, it is a Polish coin Halfgrosz from 1559, the period of the reign of Sigismund II Augustus, minted at the Vilnius mint. The pendant was given to my mother when I was 13 or 14 years old. I remember that moment well: February 14, my mother's birthday. When the guests left, I immediately asked for the pendant for myself, and since then I have hardly taken it off.

This pendant was made and given to my mother by a friend of our family, a Belarusian metal artist. When I was a child, my father often took me to his workshop, there was always a special atmosphere there: heavy metalworking machines stood around, and amazingly delicate and complex jewelry was created nearby - from miniature jewelry to huge works of art, including amazing medieval weapons. And on holidays, amazing people gathered there, and it was always fun. I always found it interesting there.

Once I almost lost the pendant in a lake near Zaslavl. I remember how scared I was when I touched the chain with my hand and it broke, I barely managed to catch the pendant falling into the water. For me it has always been like a talisman, I was very afraid of losing it. I have been wearing it for almost half my life and rarely take it off. As a student and after, I traveled a lot - sometimes as a volunteer, sometimes for work, and the pendant was always with me.

This pendant is not the only one - several of my relatives and, perhaps, people I don't know have similar ones. Before we left Belarus, my husband got the same pendant, and recently my mother finally got her own, instead of the one I took from her many years ago.

Tanya, 29
Minsk - Lviv - Tbilisi - Haifa - Warsaw
Collection of photographs for documents

This is a collection of photographs for documents. There are 97 of them and I counted them for the first time to write this letter.

It was too long ago to remember the year it started. But I remember what it started with: a photo of a friend that I accidentally saw at his place and put under my transparent phone case. I spent about six months with him like that.

I don’t remember how it developed, but at some point, people I had only seen once in my life began to appear in this collection (for example, an intern from the clinic where I worked or my friend’s ex, who came to visit from another country)

I love these photos because whether they are my closest and dearest people or those I have only seen once, they all look as funny and ridiculous as possible.

Since this collection is about ten years old, you can see loved ones in it at different periods of life, you can see me from 16 years old until today, there is also my grandmother in it at 25 years old (she is now 78).

There is no point in it, only personal pleasure from storing the most ridiculous photos of the most different people.

Sasha and Sasha, 39 (husband and wife)
Minsk – Tbilisi – Wroclaw
Penguin

This is a keychain opener.
We bought it in Minsk GUM, in the household goods department in 2011. Actually, there were two of them, two keychains for the keys to our first rented apartment. Since then, these have been the keychains of all our keys, from all our locations. One remained on the keys to our last rented apartment in Minsk. This one, the orange one, was relocated from Belarus with us.

I took it off the keys to my mother's apartment, from which we left with the children for Tbilisi, where Sasha was already waiting for us. I decided to take the penguin with me on our untimely journey at the very last moment. "After all, we will have new keys and they will also need a keychain," I thought. So it got to Poland and now our penguin is the only bottle opener in the house and is stored with the kitchen utensils. Not a keychain yet, but definitely a very useful penguin for us. I love it very much for everything: it has never been lost, it is light and has more than one function.

We hope that it will become a keychain for our own apartment, wherever it may be...

Aliaksandra, 38
Minsk - Tbilisi - Wrocław
A glass

This glass now travels with me and my family. An ordinary one, it was part of a set of six “regular glasses with yellow chrysanthemums,” most likely made in China.

My dad got sick in 2015. He began treatment at the oncology center, traveling to Baravlyany every week starting in January, and returning home for the weekends. Sometimes it was difficult for him, not only to walk but even to breathe after radiation treatments. But he always had the strength to buy little things at the department store near the hospital.

On March 8, Dad brought home a heavy bag. Inside were two sets of glasses — a gift for me and my sister. They were simple Chinese glasses with yellow chrysanthemums. I was even a little upset with him for not conserving his energy and for carrying such a heavy load in his hands. They were fairly convenient, but just “ordinary.” Until my dad passed. After March 31, 2016, those glasses became “Dad’s glasses.”

Now only one remains, the others having quietly disappeared in the everyday routine.

In 2022, I was packing 4 suitcases of our life to move to Tbilisi with my children and cat. I needed to take "my past life" with me, but it didn't fit in 4 suitcases. And dad's glass fit and now it is with me.

Alexandr, 39
Minsk - Kyiv - Warsaw - Tbilisi - Wroclaw
Coffee sticks

Кофейные палочки стали моими карточками для изучения английского языка после того, как я впервые их использовал для слова «resilience» из романа «Wuthering Heights». Каждый день я записывал на них 1-3 новых слова, которые повторял и сортировал по банкам: ежедневной, еженедельной и месячной. Взял я их с собой, потому что они представляют уют и привычный порядок в «новой жизни».

P.S.: by the way, this text was written with a pen that I also evacuated from Belarus 3 years ago.

P.S.2: at the moment I have stopped writing down new words, I only repeat the ones I have already learned. It seems to me that I am saving the refill in my pen, and I don’t know what I will do if it suddenly runs out…

Christina, 34
Minsk - Bialystok - Warsaw
2$

Once, when I was about 20 and a student, my friend and I stopped by a branch of Belarusbank on Kalinina Street in Minsk. I wanted to buy 1 dollar, though I can’t exactly remember why—probably for a gift, a piggy bank, so it wouldn’t be empty. As a joke, I decided to put 1 dollar in it. When I asked the cashier to sell me 1 dollar, she unexpectedly asked, "How about 2 dollars instead?" I thought she was joking and repeated that I only needed one. Then she explained that she meant a 2-dollar bill, which is rare, but someone had brought one into the bank that day. The cashier even showed me the bill, confirming that she wasn’t kidding. I was struck by her kindness, as if she was sharing some rare treasure with me. In the end, I decided to buy 3 dollars: one for the gift and two for myself "for good luck."

When we left the bank, I asked my friend to fold this bill the same way she once folded 5 euros in her wallet. She believed that if there is always some change in the wallet, then money will be “attracted”. It’s a funny superstition, but since then I have been carrying these folded 2 dollars in my wallet. I have changed wallets many times, but this bill always went into the new one. I often forget about it, but when I accidentally find it, I immediately remember my friend, who now lives far away.

Tanya, 35
Minsk - Bialystok -...
Dad's photo

A photograph that has been moving with me for 20 years. This photograph is not in the most visible place: it can lie in a box, in a drawer of a bedside table, somewhere behind a closed closet door. But always at the most necessary and important moment for me my gaze lingers on it, and I return to my happy childhood.

Папы нет с 2014 года, но мы в семье так и не поделились друг с другом нашей болью утраты за эти 20 лет. Каждый из нас хранит воспоминания и вопросы, которые остались без ответа.

I don’t know about other members of my family, but the older I get, the fewer questions I have and the more answers I have.

20 years ago, when I decided that this particular photo would always be with me, I cropped out my mom and framed only my dad. At 15, I decided so. Now, looking back, I would have bought a bigger frame and kept the original photo - my mom is beautiful in the photo, and I still remember it.

It is this framed photo that reminds me of how not only our thoughts and feelings change over time, but also our perception of the past.

Oleg, 37
Minsk - Bialystok
Bracelet with a jester

It was about 8 years ago. That day I had important negotiations. I arrived early to collect my thoughts. While waiting for the meeting, I went into the shopping mall and, sipping coffee, wandered around the shops. And suddenly my gaze fell on the window of a jewelry store. There it was looking at me - a bracelet with a jester.

At that moment, it seemed to me that this jester simply could not help but notice me. He knew that I was looking for him, I just didn’t know it yet. I immediately went in and bought it. Yes, he caught my attention, as if he was the personification of all those years that I spent hiding my true essence behind a mask of laughter. It reminded me of the group “King and the Jester”, the songs of which I began to listen to as a child. One of the lines of their song sank deep into my soul: “Yes, I look like a jester, but in my soul I am a king. And no one else can do it like me!” And then I realized that the jester had become my constant companion and where I lacked experience and knowledge, I put on the mask of a jester.

I began working at the university. As a courier. When I lacked confidence and experience, I put on a mask of a fool-jester. I was perceived as frivolous, but this gave me the opportunity to hide my true intentions and plans. I could remain in the shadows and make my plans without fear of being judged for my failures.

Time passed and I changed several jobs until I found myself in sales. In this field, I often had to wear the mask of a jester again, but this time I knew it was important to maintain a balance. I knew that I wanted to grow and develop, and I climbed the career ladder in small steps, not forgetting that in my soul I was still a king. And so, having reached the very top, after about 10 years, I left and opened my first company with a partner and became its director. At that moment, I took off the mask of a jester and took off my bracelet. But it remained on the shelf, occupying one of the most important places in my life. It is a reminder of how important it was to hide my true nature in order to achieve success. I was never the smartest or the fastest, but I always fought the strongest, defeating them not with strength, but with agility and strategy.

Perhaps the jester would not have become my constant companion if it were not for that important meeting (by the way, it did not end successfully for me) that I had that day. But it was thanks to this bracelet and my inner jester that I was able to go from courier to director. And now I proudly remember that a mask can be not only a tool, but also a key to success.

Dima, 40
Minsk-Warsaw
Notepad with poetry

My name is Dima. I am 40 years old. I live in Warsaw, having moved here from Minsk. The idea of ​​moving came up shortly after the protests. But it was not the repressions or even the war that were decisive, but the fear that they would come and destroy my notebooks with poems. I thought little about myself. I started writing my first poems when I was depressed. I realized that it helped somehow, and over time the desire to write turned into a necessity, a passion. The moment I caught myself in paranoia, the decision to leave became obvious. We left with a girlfriend, took cats, musical instruments, books, computers, bikes, we knew exactly what we were doing and that we were doing everything right.

Alena, 39
Минск-Гданьск
Pebble

I have always collected pebbles, since I was a child. I liked to look at them at my grandmother's in the village. There were ordinary country roads with ordinary stones and pebbles. And for me they were somehow valuable. I liked their different patterns, colors, dim but interesting pictures, I liked to feel them in my pockets. You didn't need many, one, two or three... And, of course, over time, a "lucky pebble" appeared.

This pebble is from a place where I felt good for the last six months before leaving. Almost every day I walked there, in the morning, afternoon, or evening… I really didn’t want to part with that place, its people, their stories, and the atmosphere that had developed there…The pebble ended up with me during the first six months of migration. There were many pleasant things in that transition, but this pebble, with its shape, color, and tactile experience, stayed in front of my eyes.