Strange question! Of course I belong! But where do I belong?
By nationality I am Czech. I was born in Praha, where I went to primary school, then secondary and with a “gap year” to uni. My “gap year” was unwanted, I just wasn’t accepted first time … it was not the “gap year” described in Wikipedia as “a sabbatical year during which students engage in various educational and developmental activities”, although by working as a unskilled worker in a garden-husbandry I realized I want to do something more challenging.
These were the times of black-and-white perception of the world, Iron Curtain dividing Europe into two separate areas, eastern newspapers reporting about bad imperialists … then came the year 1989, the Berlin Wall fell and at last, we, easterners, were able to travel freely, without the need to ask for a permission and a bit of foreign currency. What a joy! We were even able to live and work abroad … and learn languages, the condition for a succesfull blending in the local community.
Now there is a pandemic. Czech borders are closed again, because “we” don’t deal succesfully with the crisis … the only relieve being, that the whole world is dealing with covid as well and we can learn from each other. I guess everyone hopes, the vaccination will be effective and our lives will be able to return to “normal” soon.
