Freshman Darina Shilova arrived at DFW airport at the age of nine filled with fear and misery. She walked through the terminal hearing a language she did not understand and writing she could not read. Shilova then made her way to the car and headed to her new home full of anguish.
“When I first walked through the airport I was scared of everybody and everything,” Shilova said. “I didn’t know any English, I just learned by hearing people say things.”
People were drawn to Shilova’s uniqueness, and her accent grabbed a lot of attention from her peers. She eventually became fluent enough in English to try out for school plays, but the directors never gave her a part because of her thick Russian accent.
“I would get so frustrated when the directors would ask me if I could do an American accent,” Shilova said.
In Texas, Shilova found her niche cast in Legacy’s fall show, As You Like It by William Shakespeare. Shilova played the part of Hymen, the goddess of marriage, who shows up in the fifth act and gives away the bride for marriage. Shilova played her role at the Center for Performing Arts for a crowd of people.
“Hymen was an unusual character for me,” Shilova said. “It challenged me to be graceful and floaty, which is everything I’m not.”
In Russia, Shilova did not celebrate Christmas, but around the same time frame some Russian Christians would go into a frozen lake and dive in to show their love and devotion to God. Shilova never participated in this but she witnessed her mom dive into the frozen lake.
“The culture in America is very different than the culture in Russia,” Shilova said. “What I did with my friends in Russia is very strange to Americans.”
When she lived in Russia, Shilova lived in an apartment complex in a dangerous part of town. Shilova feared that if she went out at night, she would be kidnapped or mugged, but In America she lives in a neighborhood where she can go outside at night without fear.
“I miss Russia but I feel blessed to live in America the land of opportunity” Shilova said.
