A Young Ukrainian-American Woman Living Between Two Worlds

Ten minutes before 10 a.m., mass began on Sunday, March 6, a few more church parishioners filed through the main doors of the St. Michael’s Ukrainian Catholic Church.

Many moved with haste up the long staircase into the chapel, guided by an usher to a partially open pew. The look of relief filled their faces; Mass did not begin just yet. As the last family sat down, everyone stood up to join in prayer with the priest as he began the Ukrainian mass.

The once dim chapel before mass became vibrant in lights, color, and music as the choir began to sing. Seated above the parishioners, one voice made itself heard with vocal strength and grace. Carrying each song without hesitation, a sense of passion filled the room, immersing parishioners in prayer.

In the crowded space up above, there was only one young Ukrainian woman this unique voice belonged to and that was Anya Nakonechna.

“I have a very musical family and I have lived with music all of my life since probably I was 8 months old,” Nakonechna said. “My mother recorded that I was singing.”

Born in the largest city in Ukraine, Lviv, Anya’s hometown has a strong family heritage with roots dating back generations in the western region.

“All Ukrainians have different historical backgrounds. Each region is different in Ukraine, so all of us are from western Ukraine,” Nakonechna said. “My grandparents, my great grandparents and all of my heritage are from western Ukraine.”

While her parents, Petro and Oksana, also have grown up in Lviv, both of them grew up in different towns across from each other. When they joined together in a marriage, they started a family and resided in Lviv for some time.

“My mother was born in the same city as I, so Lviv. My dad was born in the Lviv area, so like the Milwaukee area, my dad was born in Greendale for example,” Nakonechna said. “His town is called Mykolaiv, it’s just a twenty-minute drive from the downtown area. But he’s basically from Lviv as well.” 

After spending a while in Lviv, Petro became significantly frustrated with Ukraine’s politics and desired a new life for their family.

“My mother did not want to leave because honestly, we were privileged enough in Ukraine to not have to leave. That’s how a lot of families are. It was more my dad that wanted to start a new life because he was so frustrated with the political aspects in Ukraine,” Nakonechna said. “We lived through so much and since it’s a new country, we only had independence for thirty years. There hasn’t been enough time to build up a really strong democracy internally. Over the past years, that has changed so much but that’s how it was back then.”

Petro’s plan was to move their family to the United States to ensure a new beginning. When they arrived in The United States, Anya and her family joined distant family members in Eau Clare to live until they got settled.

“I was born in Ukraine, and I was one and a half when we immigrated to Eau Clare, Wisconsin, we had a very distant relative. So, when we moved up there, we moved to them,” Nakonechna said. “My dad worked 4 jobs and my mother worked a job and she raised me. Because my sister was old enough, she could decide where she wanted to live, and my parents gave her the choice. She moved back to Ukraine, and she lived with my grandparents, and I was here.”

When Anya’s sister, Roksolyana, decided to move back to Ukraine. Their connection didn’t cease to weaken as their relationship remained strong despite the distance between them.

“We were split from a very young age and saw each other during the summers. But I think one of the main reasons I have such a deep connection to Ukraine, is because of my other half was all the time in Ukraine,” Anya said.

“I think it was always pretty close, it doesn’t matter that the miles of distance. We always talked on the phone, we always sent messages to each other,” Roksolyana Vakhula said. “If there is a silence between us or misunderstanding, we always know what another one thinks and feels. But it’s all sisters.”

But a while before they came to The United States, Petro’s green card application kept getting denied. Upset over constant rejection, he gave the form to Oksana, to then be surprised by the outcome.

“My mom accidentally won a green card. My dad kept on filling out the forms because he wanted to come to America. But he didn’t win anything, so he randomly told my mother to sign the form and she won by the first time,” said Nakonechna.

Overjoyed by the news, this meant their family could finally begin their journey. Shortly after Anya was born in the early 2000s, they moved to America.

“We came over by luck basically. In the 90s, it was a very very difficult time for Ukraine. A lot of Ukrainians immigrated/migrated to Italy, Germany and America. America was very difficult but somehow my mom won a green card,” Nakonechna said. “It was economically very rough, the Soviet Union collapsed all of these countries that were once together and there were just a lot of things going on, a lot of people lost their money and couldn’t get it back. That’s why we came in the early 2000s.”

Starting a new life in Eau Clare meant new surroundings and a variety of cultures, especially around a time where Ukrainian immigration was very prominent.

“I think it has a population of 60,000 people and when we moved there, we were the only immigrants there at the time. There were a lot of Polish people that adapted way before us,” Nakonechna said. “There was a wave of Polish immigrants that came after the war and in the 90’s escaping Poland as well. Then a lot of Ukrainians arrived in the early 2000s and we were part of that.”

At the time they immigrated, having a chance to move to The United States was an opportunity that couldn’t be passed up. Having the chance that Anya’s family was longing for was a chance they took to start a new beginning.

“My parents and the circumstances back then were different from what they are right now. I feel like the world is much more open and you can travel more,” Nakonechna said. “During those times, it was so difficult to get to America, it’s difficult right now as well. But back then, when you got a shot like this, I mean you got to take this opportunity.

Even though their plan of moving to The United States was successful and starting a new beginning was an eventful moment for all of them. Keeping Ukraine close would always stay with Anya and her family.

“My parents, they planned to go back, that was the plan. Because all of us have this sort of longing for Ukraine and throughout the years I’ve been living there,” Nakonechna said. “After we started to break away from our relatives, we lived in a house, and we moved a couple of times. Eventually, my parents split. I live with my mom; I’ve been living with my mom forever.”

Anya maintained a very close relationship with her mother, Oksana. While Oksana secured a job in Milwaukee, eventually both moved to a home in Greendale to stay long-term.

“It was after the recession; my mother got a job, and she could only find a job in Milwaukee as a dental hygienist. We moved to Milwaukee first,” Nakonechna said. “I went to 7^th grade in a Milwaukee Public School and then in 8^th grade, we moved to Greendale. All of my childhood was in Eau Clare up until I was twelve.”

Anya continued her education at Greendale High School while traveling back and forth from The United States to Ukraine to visit family and spend time during the winter and summer months.

“As I was growing up in Wisconsin, I was always in between two worlds. I would go to school and 90 percent of my day was in English and then I would come home, and we would speak Ukrainian all the time,” Nakonechna said. “All of the events that I went to at church were in Ukrainian and I went back to Ukraine almost yearly. That’s why both America and Ukraine are my home.”

Graduating a year earlier than her intended graduating class. Anya graduated in 2018, to travel back to Lviv to stay and attend Lviv National Music Academy in Western Ukraine. She aspired to pursue music, specifically voice. For generations, multiple of her family members have attended the academy as well.

“My grandma is a pianist at the academy that I go to. She helps me out all the time, I talk to her on a daily basis and she updates me on school things that happened. All of my family is very musically inclined. In Ukraine, we have a different educational system,” Nakonechna said. “My mother, my uncle, my sister and all of my mother’s cousins did music school which was for 7 years in piano. So, you can specialize in different instruments, all of us are pianists. I went into singing because I have a voice.”

With the ongoing war going on between Ukraine and Russia, in-person classes at the academy have come to a hold. Most of the concern is getting the Russians out of Ukrainian territory. Students from the colleges also took part in the war effort and enlisted.

“Right now, we have online classes. When the war started, everything got canceled and now theory classes are coming back up. With the time zone and time differences, I just catch up on sending my homework to my professors. Because I can’t really attend the lectures, I get the lectures separately,” Nakonechna said. “I still have my voice lessons, right now, everyone and all the students at the academy are dedicating their time to the army. It’s not that there isn’t time to study, but the priority is to get the enemy out right now. That’s what everybody is focusing on.”

Like her voice, she carries herself with strength while marching through the streets and attending benefits for the Ukraine relief efforts. Her life is led with grace, with her heart going out to others and finding a sense of peace where her happiness resides.

“All of us Ukrainians, in general, are very talented to music, but it depends on what nature gifts you, and what God gifts you,” Nakonechna said. “So, I was given a voice and that’s why I’ve been singing all my life. In America, in Wisconsin, I’ve always represented Ukraine at international and cultural events.”

Passion is of her nature, it’s without a doubt that her love for Ukraine can’t go unnoticed. She strives to tell anyone and everyone she meets about Ukraine and why it’s important to recognize it. Utilizing her education in Ukraine to spread liberal American ideas to provoke individualism, conversation and independence.

“I left for Ukraine at seventeen, everything that I had learned, I promoted over there. It was a way of teaching liberalism in Ukraine,” Nakonechna said. “That’s why I give English tutoring lessons in Ukraine, to promote ideas for people our age to constantly come up with your own opinions or your own ideas. The Soviet Union and Communism didn’t do that. If you had an idea, you were shunned by it, and America is the opposite it’s encouraged.”