Trains of life

Ho chiesto a Maya di scrivere una lettera, per parlare di sè e delle sue visioni. Quale miglior modo per rendere un punto di vista diverso? Non solo interpretando la vita altrui, ma ascoltando o leggendo qualcuno che abbia voglia di coinvolgere e rendere partecipi. E con Maya è facile, perchè lei è così, vuole rendere partecipi perchè ama, ama perchè vive.

Maya ha scritto una lettera che è un canto di vita, il suo punto di vista sulla vita. Ha uno stile scattante ed immediato, offre spunti da un osservatorio bombardato e mostra la forza di sopravvivere che diventa sempre più voglia di vivere. Brama un desiderio di viaggiare senza fuggire, mantenere responsabilità senza ritirarsi sull'Aventino della propria coscienza, nessuna partenza che diventi fuga.

Marija Ignjatovic è come noi ed uguale a noi, la sua storia poteva essere la nostra storia, la lingua, il paese, la guerra, la politica non sono riusciti a renderla più distante da noi e la voglia di incontrarsi e ricongiungersi alla fine prevarrà. La prova che alla fine sono più le cose che ci accomunano che quelle che ci dividono sta negli stessi desideri, negli stessi slanci, nella certezza che per un accidente del caso parliamo lingue diverse, nella sicurezza che abbiamo identità tribali superate le quali potremmo ricongiungerci come semplici esseri umani, amici ed amanti. Lei è un simbolo di questa generazione anelante ad un futuro più aperto.

Un desiderio che ha già preso forma, un' idea che trova la sua precisione nella concretezza del quotidiano. Perchè oggi, questa generazione, sta vivendo il futuro ed il presente allo stesso tempo.

Trains of Life

di Marija Ignjatovic

…there isn’t a train I wouldn’t take,
no matter where it’s going.

And there really isn’t. At least for me. Travel, adventure, challenges. Cause in human’s nature is to discover, to invent…

And imagine what happens when at one moment that train just- STOPPED!

There was a war…War that changed the life in my country. A couple of years with no money, food…I don’t really remember of that time, I was too young to be aware of all that misery. But I am aware now, when I see people around me. In the bus, in supermarket… Faces without smile, bodies without strength and energy…And when I am in somewhere else, in other countries, the first words that people say when I mention that I come from Serbia are: Yugoslavia, Milosevic, war, politicians in Hague…And that hurts.

People, stop fighting, angels are crying, we can be better- LoVe is the answer…

And than come the NATO bombs. In 1999. Every night in basement. Every day hearing alarms for dangerous. Fear. Asking yourself if it’s end, or there is more. Some more years to live.

No pain- no GAME!

You know, what doesn’t kill us-makes us stronger. Those situations made stronger all people who didn’t want to stay laid on the ground. The best thing we learned from it is- to live every day of our lives, as if it’s the last one. To appreciate every hour. To give your best every second. What you can do TODAY, do YESTERDAY, cause you never know what TOMORROW brings …

And that’s how I live - one step ahead. No time for losing the time.

Creativity. My strongest benefit. I always think out something to do. Originality. Activity. Never bored, always spinnin’ around. The world is too round to sit in the corner…

I finished the university. At the age of 22. Languages. German and English. Languages are my passion. I want to learn two or three languages more. Just the fact, that you meet someone, no matter where, no matter what country the person comes from, and to enlarge (learning as more languages as you can) possibilities to understand who that person is, what he/she likes, what are his/her needs- sounds wonderful to me.

I am one of those people who like to make love with nature. I am able to go alone into the forest, and stay there the whole day long. All alone. By myself. Climbing the trees. Reading a book. Or just simply enjoying the sun and fresh air.

Did you hear for “The Day of Exchange”? It’s one day in a year, when people take all their stuff, from basements, meat-safes, or even their rooms, all stuff, that they actually don’t need. And on that day they exchange their things with other people. I organized this action two years ago, in Belgrade. Due to lots of flyers, sticklers (everything was sponsored by one German foundation, I got scholarship) and due to my investment to the all- the action was successful, about two hundred people came that day. Beside of exchange there were acrobats, jugglers, music. The most interesting exchanges got prices, some creative surprise-boxes that I made. But aside from being amusing action, it was also humanitarian one- people could leave also things for children without parents. At the end there were so much things, can you just imagine the happiness in the eyes those children as they saw it!

I am playing handball for 17 years, now in the second league. Beside that, I am dancing funky jazz, I paint, make jewellery (just for me and my friends ;), go swimming, give German classes. And in between of my activities- I work too, full time job- in Austrian Embassy ;)

Serbia is not in Europian Union, which means that we need visa for travelling. Limit. Because of the war a lot of people emigrated to other counties. How hard is to me to say people that they didn’t get visa, and that they can’t go, this time again, to visit their family. But what hurts more than that is to see how much people want to get visa- to run away from Serbia ;-(

I had luck to travel. I got a lot of scholarships as good student, so I was in almost all big Europian cities. The most of travelling was to Germany, organizing courses of German language for kids and teenagers. Or having some seminars, projects and so on. Travelling for me means not to escape from Serbia, but to meet people from different countries and to broaden my mind.

My favourite movie “Im Juli” (the German one)- a road movie, the story of one love that comes during the travelling two people from Germany to Turkey- by hitchhiking. The ideal love ;)

But I am preferring theater to watching movies. I played in lot of plays, both in Serbia and abroad. I organized some theater projects and on our theater scene I prefer modern ballets and opera.

The book I’m reading at the moment- “Love letters of Great man”. Fascinating. Letters that someone as Mozart, Honore de Balzac, Mark Twain wrote to women they loved. Makes you to think how much our generation lost that kind of communication, I just imagine that taste of pleasure to get one love letter (or just a letter) instead of one sms…

...

That’s me, in short.

And now you know one girl, who lives somewhere there in one country determinated by wars, but she still loves her life. And every day when she awakes, the greatest of joy is her- that of being herself.

…I know, I know for sure, that life is beautiful around the world…

Cheers!

Maya from Serbia