Veranika Mishchanka: How To Overcome Laziness And Fear

If each of us does even a little, our Belarus will become a country for life.

I've been standing at pickets to collect signatures for a month, the activist of the Belarusian National Congress and Narodnaya Hramada Veranika Mishchanka writes for the hramada.org website. She got acquainted with thousands of people, listened to hundreds of questions and gave hundreds of answers. Most often she heard two things:

- How is that you are not afraid?

- Nothing will work out.

"I will now tell a little story from my life. I work many hours at the computer. In order to keep myself fit, I have to do sports every day. Bicycle and swimming.

One day I came up to the water and realized I didn't want to. Something was bothering me, I couldn't swim. I felt too lazy to undress and was just afraid to get into water. And now, when something resists inside of me, I ask myself what it is: fear or laziness? And most often these two things are both present at the same time.

So I have overcome the laziness in this way. And every time I overcame it, my life got better, my career got better.

And I overcame my fear seven months ago. Here, on Freedom Square, when I came to film a picket of Narodnaya Hramada. It was a single protest of Valiantsin Trotski. I was holding the phone in my hands, I was terribly scared. I had a lump in my stomach, my legs were cotton, my hands were shaking. My kids were standing next to me, taking pictures of me and Valiantsin, securing me.

When Valiantsin was arrested, I realized that my life would never be the same. But at the same time, we felt the sense of freedom and dignity that made us feel like citizens and people.

That's how things changed for the second time in my life.

I believe that if each of us does even a little, our Belarus will become a country for life. I call on everyone to do so.

Faith is the way to happiness. Hope is the only path.

Long Live Belarus!