I attended school in the 1990s, on the outskirts of Minsk. Back then, many people in Belarus were experiencing economic hardship, and my family was no exception. As such, school played a major role in my young life. In third grade, I discovered a world globe in a cabinet in our geography classroom. I was so curious about it, my teacher allowed me to take the globe home for a week, during which time I eagerly learned about things such as continents, seas, deserts, rivers and mountains.
