Esseys

Just one day of my life

I’m falling down in a chasm, hearing thousand bells of thousand black monks ringing more and more aloud… “No, it’s the alarm-clock!” I realise suddenly. “It’s 6, Tuesday morning and you’ve got to go to school. ” I turn the radio on and my day begins.

Bathroom, dressing up, breakfast. I’ve still got 10 minutes left. “I will read just two more pages of the book I didn’t finish yesterday. It won’t take long. Don’t worry, you will catch the bus. I promise.” I have to persuade myself. But the story is so nice that I’m not able to close the book. Of course, I’m late. As I’m running to the bus stop, I’m debating: ”That writer is great!” Fortunately, the bus is a minute late.

At the railway station I get on my train to Sučany, where my school is. On the train I meet my friends and schoolmates. “Did you learn for Biology? Have you done the English essay? Are you going to cinema today?” That’s a typical journey to school.

At school I have a frantic day. A test in Biology, a discussion in English, poetry in the Slovak class… The 6th lesson is on its way and I’m looking forward to my lunch.

I take the 2:02 p.m. train to Žilina – my hometown. From the railway station I go directly to the library I need some information for my Chemistry project. “Hurry up. You don’t have much time. You want to go to the Film club today, don’t you?” However, after visiting the section of technical literature, I come ‘by chance’ to the section of belles-letters. As usually, I find the valuable, irresistible book, which I was seeking for already for some time. And my inner quarrel begins again: “No, you can’t do that. You can’t take the book. You still have three other books at home you haven’t read.” “Are you serious? You were looking just for this book! And now you want to leave it here? Have you gone mad?” Usually, I yield to the temptation.

As I’m walking home – it’s dark and snowing – I realise how beautiful it is. The snow is lightly glistening in the lamplight, I’m breathing the cold air, but I am not cold. I’m walking home and looking forward to going to the cinema. A sweet puppy comes and smells me. But a girl calls: ”Come here, Zora,” and the dog forgets me. That lovely feeling of this evening takes only a while, but it is the more precious. I promise to myself to go somewhere out this weekend.

I come home. My mother is waiting for me with a delicious supper. Then I study and at 7:30 p.m. I go to the cinema. I join my friend there. We chat for a while and when the film starts, we just watch and live the story.

When I get home, I’m tired, looking forward to my bed. Before that I luxuriate for a while. I turn off the light, turn on the radio and listen to a song of my favourite singer Bob Dylan. That’s the nicest way to end the day. Tomorrow won’t be so frantic, I will have more spare time or maybe the day after tomorrow. I will see. But now it’s late. Good night!

Soňa Melicherová

Every Man is the Architect of his own Future

Everybody in the world has some longings for the future, some expectations, ideas about what he or she wants to become and what his future life should look like. Most of people try in various ways to achieve their dreams, try to build their later years as satisfactorily as possible.

However, not all of them succeed in this. They fail once, twice and they give up. Then they try to look for the excuses of the faults they have made in talking about “destiny”, which caused their failure because it is the only thing that decides about their lives and leads every step of theirs. And, of course, we cannot do anything to stop it.

This argument suggests that we are just little puppies in someone else’s hands. But I think that only people themselves have the power to get what they long for. They have talents and a wide range of different abilities which should be used and presented in a proper way, for the results to come.

Let us consider, for example, parents and their children. It is normal and understandable that they want to create as good future for their children as possible. They force their son to study law although he loves painting, they find a job for their daughter, which costs them a lot of persuading of their friends – bosses. The job is well-paid although the daughter has not studied enough to solve the problems her employers expect her to solve. And the result ? The son stays unhappy, the daughter is sacked because of lack of abilities.

And the people will not ask the girl who put her in that job, they will only see she has failed. She will be the one responsible for the mistakes she made. And none will help her then, she is the one sentenced. However, she should be judged not for being unable to work in this job, but for letting people persuade her to do something she knew she had no abilities for.

The world is full of the people who made something good or bad for the others or themselves, the people who reached something in their lives. Sometimes they certainly were helped by the others on their way, but it was their talent how they used this help.

Slávka Kuročková