Julia

My name is Julia and I live in Warsaw, Poland with my mother, father and younger brother. I grew up with three brothers, two of them live on their own now. Since the beginning of kindergarten, I had problems with children my age. They always picked me as the weakest one, so I was bullied a lot. Thanks to my mother I had a strong relationship with God, but I was just a child and I wanted to be liked, so I lied and did a lot of stupid things to impress my classmates which of course didn’t work. Without the validation from friends, I struggled with self-acceptance.

While I was in junior high school, I met a Young Life leader who introduced me to Young Life and Jesus. I started to read New Testament on my own and learned about Jesus and prayer which carried me through a lot of hard and dark times. I desperately wanted to help teenagers who were victims of bullying and had problems with self-love, but I knew that first I needed to start to love myself. Jesus helps me with that every day, even when I forget how. Through Young Life, I see a way to get to troubled and lost teenagers who need guidance and a relationship with Him.

I am studying at the University of Warsaw and pursuing a degree called PPL, which is a program centered on psychology, philosophy and linguistics. I want to learn more about our brain and how it is connected to our psyche, and I hope this knowledge will enable me to help kids even more. As a Developing Global Leader, I love continuing as a Young Life leader in my community, building relationships and memories with teens.