Once we were just kids with plans

This month, The Counteroffensive turns three. We share our childhood dreams that shaped who they are today.

Editor’s Note:

For three years now, The Counteroffensive has been writing for you, about loss and injury, about fear and exhaustion, but also about joy, strength, and what helps people hold on and keep moving forward.

Thank you for being with us all this time: for reading, supporting, donating, and commenting on our stories.

Today, we want to introduce you to a slightly younger version of ourselves... our childhood selves. Who we were before all of this, and what we dreamed about back then.

If personal, reported stories like these resonate with you, subscribe so you don’t miss the next ones.

The Counteroffensive team in March, 2026

KYIV, Ukraine — Becoming a pediatrician, wearing beautiful business attire, traveling the world, or learning languages. In childhood, dreams seem simple — they grow alongside us, change, or stubbornly push through the years and circumstances.

For the third anniversary of The Counteroffensive, we gathered personal stories from our team — about who we imagined ourselves to be as children, how this journey has changed us, and which of those dreams survived when reality proved far more complicated.

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After paywall:

• How we looked like kids;

• Why a dream of becoming a priest will never come true;

• Whose writing was mocked in school;

• Who have achieved their goals;

• Who thought they never end up in journalism.