Amnesia, by Alberto Andrei Manca, 19 years old, student at International Informatics High School, Bucharest
“Money makes the world go round, the world go roundoundoundound”…the dusty, scratched vinyl record always breaks here; as I stop it, I gaze through the window to the grayish-dark nothingness outside. Although I have lived on Chronos all my life I still wonder: Why does this world go round?
It’s going to be one of those nights when I crawl under my sheets, haunted by my ideas, unable to fall asleep. Shifting my gaze, I contemplate the glass ceiling struck by scintillating points and I see Ananke, moon of Chronos, rising – its cold light flooding the room. I ache for the lofty sky, not clear yet still immeasurably lofty, with gray clouds gliding slowly, quietly, peacefully and solemnly across it. But here, there are no clouds; there is no atmosphere.
Earth seems only a distant memory; a memory that isn’t even mine. Smart enough to build almost anything, but not wise enough to know how to use it, men were at the precipice. They challenged nature and they tamed it: dams kept Holland from being flooded, skyscrapers in Japan couldn’t be destroyed by earthquakes, and asteroids were tracked; even houses in Kansas couldn’t be taken away by tornados anymore. But men were greedy. How could they take down a tree and value more the artificial green bills made out of it, than its own marvelous leaves? Something was wrong.
At that time parsimony was at an acme. There was no willing to share or to help; to do something without expecting anything in return…to vol…volunt…Damned we are. I can’t even remember the word for it…If only humans would have foreseen the mutual benefits of working together. If only one hour of every man’s “precious” time would have been spared to give a hand to the hospital, clean the park, or cheer up kids from a foster home, the world would have remained lucid – lucid enough to tell right from wrong. But too much was not enough and in their selfishness people even forgot how to enjoy that beautiful and wonderful and miserable and ridiculous thing, made up of years that they had…Something must have gone wrong. Terribly wrong.
It’s only on the brink of disaster that people find the will to change, but they failed to do so. If they had changed, my reality wouldn’t have existed. It would have been only the creation of a young mind… But I can feel the harsh reality of Chronos when I tell the kids that our ancestors could take a bath in the ocean. “This sounds more like science-fiction to me” a child told me once. Oh! I wish it was fiction, but now it’s too late for that, isn’t it?
So here I am, 3 a.m. in the morning, alone, in a threatening world where what lies ahead is vague and uncertain, the past blurred, sunk into oblivion…Oh, but I do remember one thing: Chronos was never somewhere else; it’s only sometime else…We never left Earth.
Acest eseu este castigatorul unei mentiuni in cadrul 2011 Shakespeare School Essay Competition, grupa de varsta 15-19 ani, avand ca tema rolul si importanta voluntariatului. Premiul a constat intr-un cadou surpriza din partea librariei Carturesti, dictionare Cambridge/Oxford + CD ROM sau album British Churches, de la Fischer International , un voucher pentru achizitionarea de articole sportive din Puma – Cotroceni, un voucher de reducere 50% la orice curs de vara de limba engleza la Shakespeare School, un rucsac si alte surprize din partea British Council Romania. Dorim sa il felicitam pe Andrei pentru faptul ca s-a evidentiat din peste 5100 de eseuri trimise la concursul national de creatie in limba engleza organizat de Shakespeare School si ii uram mult succes in continuare!
