Youth Category 1st Prize

MY DREAM WILL COME TRUE

by Kandelaki Kathevan
Georgia, Age 19

Imagine a large field of flowers… Every second a unique plant emerges from the ground. If we care for it, give to it some sun, water and love, green leaves and marvelous blossoms will grow up. But if we step on the plant, tear it selfishly from the ground or leave it for the winds, the field will die away. Life is just like this meadow of flowers. Our every move, breathe and thought leaves its deep mark on this field, and no rain can wash it away.

We know how precious is the rainbow in the sky, the first cry of the newborn child, the eyes full of tears of joy, the funny puppy playing with the bee. And what do we do afterwards? We throw bombs all around, then proudly do not buy ozone-deadly hair sprays. We murder mothers and then congratulate each other for building new orphanages, we slaughter animals and then create laboratories and watch the only one left from the breed. We courageously roar when running in the field of war, with the weapons in our hands. Then we sit and retell in the TV shows what new phobias the war had created. We do not know how to respect the life, how to care for it correctly. Meanwhile the field of life is trying to stop us with hurricanes, floods and earthquakes, because the planet is so close to devastation…

But what is the correct way to treat life? Take the flower and give it to the kid. Then watch his thankful eyes, his sincere laugh and joy, how he answers a smile with a smile. The children are the ones who can teach us the respect for the beauty around us. Their eyes tell us that, to honor all life, is to be thankful for every kind of existence, the unique differences between people, among plants and animals. Their smiles show that the African in Zimbabwe is the partner of the Eskimos, that we are all equal and similar, sharing mutual responsibility for the planet earth.

Yes, even if we do not feel it right now, we all truly need each other, and with every new war, we kill the unique part of us, murder it forever. We need the earth, and with the new toxic fume we burn our air, the to breathe.

People have wasted so many centuries on greedy wars, selfish tree-cutting and mindless animal slaughtering. 21 century has come and we still live wrongly, never managing to establish harmony on earth. Now it is the last chance for us to survive, to make peace with nature and with people around us. We have to look deep inside ourselves, find the little kid with the flower, who is still living deep inside our hearts, listen to the song of our soul and throw the flags in the air, white and pure as snow, the flags of peace…

I grew up when the civil war was ravaging in Georgia, when everything was black, and tears were pouring out in the streets of Tbilisi, and mourning for the dead ones frightened the birds in the skies. But as I walked past the whistling bullets, I never gave up the hope that as a grown up person I would manage to change the world for good. I have seen Tbilisi as a swamp. But I believe in brighter future…

And soon a clear spring will burst from the mountain, not resembling any other flow. And no one will manage to stop it, a new page in the history… This new generation will bring peace to the hearts and harmony to the world. It will stick posters of peace on the evil faces and establish pacification-study schools in the storage rooms of weapons.

Right now, all I can do is to write essays like this one, hoping that it will change someone's manner of thought. In autumn I will establish a peace club in my University. It will unite people of Serbia, Albania, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Macedonia… We will create the little world to show the grown ups how to cooperate. We will come together and show all the Balkans that we can be partners, friends and couples…

In future, I will do all it takes to educate everyone around me about the importance of peace. I would establish schools where children, along with grown-ups would learn to love the earth, the nature and each other…

I see it now. Big blue sky and green trees, happy children and peaceful parents, friendship and endless handshakings, food for everyone and harmony for each and every person. Somebody will think, "she is dreaming", but I am not alone. The future generation is all dreaming like me, and we will make the world one big land of peace.