# Eseul care a câștigat locul al II-lea la Concursul Național “Margareta Sterian”, secțiunea Creație literară în limba engleză
Before the year 2015, nobody really knew a lot about migration, we didn’t even know the meaning of what this term, actually stood for and almost nobody really talked about it.
Nowadays, Migration is a worldwide movement; it has become normality and a necessity, a passport to survival. But why?
Throughout, our biology lessons we found out that there is this phenomenon of animals, insects, fish and bird migration usually on seasonal basis. But why do they migrate? Simple! To seek for things which are no longer available in their before-migration settlement, or in simpler words, they migrate to seek for better.
Beside this type of migration there is also the human migration. Looking for a definition of this term, Wikipedia defines it as: ”Human migration is the movement by people from one place to another with the intentions of settling, permanently in the new location.”
I asked myself, hundreds of times, why on earth, would anyone choose to leave their native country, to get rid of their roots, family or ancestors, to prefer to go to nowhere? My first childish, and innocent answer was:” well, we learnt it from the birds and we thought to give it a try.So let’s fly to other countries and other lands where all posibilities are nearer.”
I have almost 18 years old now and things have become more complicated regarding the phenomenon of migration, not clearer but more complicated. I understood that most of the people don’t choose to leave their native country and migrate because they want to, but because they don’t have a choice. Syrian refugees, lybian refugees, for example, for them MIGRATION stands for SALVATION, it’s not a trifle, a challenge for a change, it’s a compulsory decision otherwise they will die. I understand that behind the action of migration there are people who have no variant but to migrate. Their native country can, no longer,represent a safe teritory, people usually migrate because of the poverty conditions, economical hardships, social struggles , and most important and critical armed conflicts.
For writing this essay, I did some research, in order to understand better the subject of migration, and unfortunatelly, I found out that after Syria, Romania, my lovely native country, occupies the second place with its highest rate of migration .The former is in the middle of a civil war, but the latter? Once again , I asked myself, why? Why would you choose to abandon this lovely, beautiful,with so much to offer country? Or, moreover, what would make me leave my country.
Now, while I am writing this essay , my country is passing through an instable period, people are shouting for their rights, are protesting against the government’s decisions. Romanians allover the world are fighting for the same rights, irrespective of the fact that they have left their native country or not, that is if they have migrated. What is the reason for doing this? I mean, why would you bother to care about the problems from a country, from where you decided to leave? Why would you care? You have a new country there, right?Maybe or for sure a better one, right?
My conclusion , to all of these is that your soul can not migrate.
So, you can change you settlement, language, country, civilization, but you can not change your soul. One’s soul can not migrate. Its roots remain in their native ground, native fellows, native language, native country. And when these roots will shout for help, the voice of the migrant will come from any country, no matter how far it is or how much welfare he or she has.
In a nutshell, do we migrate or not? Is it a good thing or not? Should I give it a try when I grow older or not? Or more than that, what has to happen to me , to make me decide to leave my country?
My answers will come along, I am sure they will, but one thing is clear: we learnt migration from the birds, we understood from them that a journey to another land, country, or to difference, means seeking for better, for : a better life, more opportunities , more happiness and why not a new beginning. It takes a lot of courage to embrace all these changes ....to migrate means, after all, being willing to take lots of risks, because at the end of your journey you may find better or worse and you have to be prepared for this.
In my opinion, Migration and all that it represents, is like the lottery, you may win but at the same time you may lose, it does not represent a quarantee, but a chance…a better one or a bad one. For instance, our grandparents were not allowed to migrate,it was prohibited during that time to leave your country and if you ask them it wasn’t a good thing. So they didn’t get the chance to choose.
Nowadays it is up to us… if we want to play the lottery or not, therefore:
GOOD LUCK TO ALL! Irrespective of what you choose.
Andreea Tănase, clasa a XI-a A
Prof . coordonator, Manuela Pănescu
Liceul Tehnologic “Astra” Pitești
(Postat februarie 2019)