I believe I’m not the only one who, whenever a major anniversary is coming around, feels nostalgic and keeps reflecting on old, kind memories. And as I revisit the good moments of the past, half-true trops inevitably keep surfacing. Knowing these youngsters, who have reached an important milestone in their lives and now look back to celebrate, I really wouldn’t like to congratulate them with some generic words of wisdom, nor would I want to loudly cheer on them (given their modesty). But still!
I cannot forget our first camp together over ten years ago, right after our group, our community was formed. Eleven-year-old Enikő Andalics, with her beautiful brown eyes, glanced at the long way ahead of us, and was the first to hold my hand, not even looking up, but from the feel I already knew we would go all along that way, always together. Helping, sometimes holding each other, though sometimes it may have seemed as a forced bond. Will the hand, that held me right then and there, let me go now? For Enikő, who is now a certified recreation manager, has several job offers to choose from, but she will be commissioned as an officer next month to be a military diver.
I cannot forget regarding Sára Horváth how this infinitely quiet, kind and conformingly happy girl was always among the best for all of the twelve years. She kept her training regime, as prescribed by her synchronised swimming coach, even during the summer camps. After training in the early hours of the day, Sára would take her academic duties just as seriously as sports, then always managed to find the balance between competitions and Saturday classes. She was loyal to both. In her psychology studies she was also motivated by perfection, which eventually earned her a honorary degree from Gáspár Károli University.
There is an old photo of ten-year-old Petra Kollárovics trying to hide (in the same first camp in Zánka), she preferred a badminton racket to cover her face. Though it couldn’t cover her smile and her clear blue eyes. She stayed in the background for a decade, to reach silent perfection. She finished her studies at the famous Corvinus University, becoming a rural development manager in the process. The ink hasn’t even dried on the degree, she is already carefully planning her next steps towards fulfilling her old dreams.
Richárd Palkó. Fluent in three languages, though getting to know him presented me with perhaps the most challenging and exciting intellectual journey. As a child he was just about mystic and reserved as a young adult nowadays. In a nature camp, on the way up to Írottkő, he smuggled a pebble the size of a half bread into his bag, went up, came down, then presented me with it, knowing how much I love collecting them and how good it is to give to others. A lot of important conversations and a confusingly high level of intelligence is what comes to my mind when I think of him. He earned his bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Corvinus University with good results; nothing else would be worthy of him.
So it’s ten years (or more). Let’s hope for another decade to spend together, Enikő as a military officer, Sára on a psychology master’s course, Petra in the Netherlands studying for a master’s degree in Food Management, Ricsi continuing at Corvinus but on a different course. They all got here with the immense help and support from Csányi Foundation, as a mentor I can only thank and congratulate on the good results so far and I hope for a similarly successful future.
Angéla Sárközi, mentor, Kaposvár 2. group