Slovenia, August 2023
Oh, look, a new morning is winking from a nearby hill. It’s rising, welcoming a new day – a day which hasn’t started for me quite yet. Still wrapped in my sheets, lolling about… I look at my watch, it’s Wednesday, August 30th, 2023. Usually, school would start in two days, but it’s different this year. I’m starting my university studies at the Maribor Faculty of Medicine, therefore I still have a month of holidays ahead of me. I’m really looking forward to it.
Even though I’m immensely enjoying my longest summer holiday thus far, I have to admit this is also the first time I’m actually looking forward to the beginning of a new school year. I’m starting a new chapter in my life. As I reflect upon the one I have just concluded, I sometimes ask myself – could I have done all this on my own, without any help?! In life we encounter people who come and go, but there are some who stay with us the entire time, walking by our side and rooting for us on our path to adulthood. Offering us sanctuary, warmth, a shoulder to cry on, a hug to comfort us. For me those people are my mom and dad. Without them I would not have been the person I am today. Without any hesitation they have always stood by me, giving me hope, sharing joy with me, talking to me and giving me advice.
Sadly, however, not everyone is as fortunate in life. This is what Jan Plestenjak sings about in his song Ona sanja o Ljubljani (‘She dreams of Ljubljana’). The song is about a girl, who for the past eight years gets up every day at five o’clock and waits for the train that takes her to her job at the factory. It is about her childhood; growing up she didn’t feel love and support from her parents, or they just didn’t know how to show it to her. (“Mother gave her no hope and father forgot to hug her.”) This is the reason she wants to go to Ljubljana, to find a better world.
She longs to move from the countryside to a city, for someone to open the door into the perfect Ljubljana for her, into a bustling city, where there’s lots of fun and always something going on. But she doesn’t know that in Ljubljana also people are lonely.
For us Slovenes, Ljubljana has always been a symbol of something better, already from the modernism period, from early 20th century. To writer Ivan Cankar Ljubljana represented a door to a better life. He too believed that people there live a completely different life, a life with a better view of the future. Ljubljana is a synonym for wealth and money, a luxury some people can only dream of. I find it interesting how people always dream of escaping to some other place, even though it is the same everywhere. We often overlook the fact that beauty can be found within ourselves.
I believe that even today Ljubljana is still one of the privileged cities in Slovenia. Acquiring education at a university in Ljubljana is supposed to be a better stepping stone for the future. I admit I have also been tempted to study in our capital. However, I often ask myself: Is it really so great to be in Ljubljana? The answer to this question lies in Plestenjak’s song. He says the girl has been blinded by an apparition of perfect Ljubljana; she only sees what others tell her about, she is not aware of Ljubljana’s imperfections. People in Ljubljana are alone and lonely, but she doesn’t have to be, because there is someone who cares about her. As she dreams of Ljubljana, the poet dreams about her. He believes in her, in them (him and her), so he does not want her to leave. He wishes that her dreams of Ljubljana wouldn’t have blinded her and that she would have realised there is someone out there, someone who wants her as much as she wants to go to Ljubljana. (“I breathe for her, without her my life will turn into darkness.”)
We only have one life, but if we live it well, one is enough. It is hard to find happiness inside ourselves, however, it is impossible to find it anywhere else.
I believe that success, satisfaction, but most of all making a better and happier living environment depend on each individual. We encounter numerous dilemmas and problems throughout our lives, and we have to deal with them, not look for reasons that cause them outside of ourselves, that is what Plestenjak’s song is about.
Everybody is capable of reaching our best potential. We all deserve to succeed.
Stereo Story #745
Zala Grobelnik
Zala Grobelnik is an 18 year old student who will shortly begin her university studies at the Maribor Faculty of Medicine in Slovenia.
Hvala, Zala. A wonderful reminder that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side. Best of luck with your studies in Maribor (a beautiful city itself!).