When you’re 17 and living in a conflict zone, hope seems like the last thing you can muster. For three-plus years, I’ve experienced endless sirens and blackouts in Poltava, Ukraine. I haven’t been to school full time. Friends and neighbors have fled. In the last year, more than 130 people were killed and the buzzing of drones and bombings are our new normal. I worry constantly — will there be a ceasefire? Will my parents lose their jobs? Will my luck end during the next missile strike? Despite this, I’m very optimistic. It’s rooted in a special resilience I’ve learned...