Dear GoFundMe community,

 

My name is Sargis, and before telling you the purpose of this fundraiser, I would ask you to read my story first.

 

When I was told that life is a roller coaster, I never thought of finding myself in the front seat.

Life is a thread of events, both positive and negative. There are days that you don’t care to remember; on the contrary, there are days and exact dates you can never forget. You never forget them because their impact is so huge that it directly affects and changes the person you are, the colors of the world around you, your whole life.

 

27.09.2020 is when my life changed forever. War.

The Republic of Armenia: a 30-year-old country that has been in a military conflict since the very day of its independence and where every male is to undergo a mandatory military service of 2 years. I was no exception. However, for my generation, it was a dramatically different experience. Let me tell you about it in more detail.

 

My life motto has always been “work until you no longer have to introduce yourself”. Since I was 13, I have worked in 7 big companies, volunteered in over ten organizations, took part in international camps and all that while being an A student. I was fully independent by 17. I have always kept myself responsible and accountable for my own actions because that taught me not to derail from my path, the bigger picture I always strived for. The Army was no exception. While my peers thought of those two years as a waste of their time, it never discouraged me; in fact, right the opposite, it motivated me to be as productive as possible. In a short period, everyone in the military in the region knew me. Four months into service, I was already the President of the Military Council of my battalion, gave interviews on national TV as the Military Speaker of the Syunik province and most importantly, got promoted to a sergeant to be in charge of a 14-man-squad.
All these, while I was the youngest of them all. I would spend my free time reading books because I realized that apart from being far from home, I am also far from a source of traditional education. Everything was fantastic until that night. On the 26th of September, 2020, I was in charge of all the sentries of the battalion for the next 24 hours.

At 6 am, I received an emergency call from the headquarters, saying the war had started. For a minute, I thought I was hallucinating.
My squad and I headed to the frontline right away. We were on our way for one full day. Numerous explosions around us, missiles flying over our heads. We were under direct shelling. It was late at night when the car stopped and we had to run out of the car and hide in the woods in order for us not to be hit by a drone. That is when we realized what it is like to truly fear death. Deep inside we realized that we might never be home again. Those were really tough times. The next day, at around 5am, when we got to the frontline everyone was looking at me. The weight on my shoulders was 14 times greater as I was the sergeant of the squad. I had no choice but to do everything to keep the team spirit no matter what.

 

For 21 days, everyone lost their sense of reality. We were digging the trenches with our bare hands. The more the number of deaths grew, the deeper the trenches were dug. The most traumatic day was the 3rd one, the 29th of September, when the first person from our battalion died. He was our friend. On that day, while the sky was pouring with rockets, we gathered in one place, talked about our dreams, and reminisced about the great moments we had experienced together. The more we spoke, the more the fear of death grew in the air. After some time, none of us was able to utter any other single word.

 

Looking into everyone’s eyes and seeing those cold looks, I broke the silence. “When I make it out of this alive, nothing will stop me from realizing my dreams. We all just have to stay alive no matter what”.

 

Today, here I am. Alive and proving to everyone that when there is a will, there's also a way. It is the strong will to live, the passion and love for life that helped me fight and stay alive.

 

What was my dream?
To become a person of a character. Now that I got my life back, I have got a job that I love, I am volunteering, I have my family and friends by my side. There is this one grand dream of mine which I ‘ll try to achieve no matter what. That is getting a quality education.

 

 

They say that the best teacher in life is experience. If that is the case, I would not want anyone to get the teacher that taught me. I have learned my lesson and am ready to share the experience with others.

 

I want to contribute to the community in the best way. Share my experience, talk about the importance of inner and outer peace, share my culture and