The Young People from the City Where the Map is Hanged
I am almost 17 and I’ve been living in the city “where the map is hanged” since I was born and anyone can say from the very first moment and without a doubt that Baia Mare is a small city. However, if you take a closer look, in the heart of the town, and you take a walk through the places that young people like, you can see that the town is full of life, there’s energy and, of course, motion.
I’ve been volunteering for almost one year at DEIS Association, a local youth organisation. Last year, from the perspective I was seeing the city I would have said that I live in a boring city. Although I adore small cities with something to say, it seemed to me that, honestly, apart from history, the city had nothing to say. Since I became a volunteer, my view has changed dramatically. Baia Mare can make a story worth telling. We have potential. That energy from different corners of the town can make something great, and that energy comes mostly from young people.
Talking to friends and classmates I noticed that not many of them know or understand the role of youth organisations and/or the idea that through them Something can be made even in the little Baia Mare. Many young people have great ideas, but most ideas are left there, where they popped up because most people don’t think they’re achievable. One day someone at DEIS said that “In a few years, you could even bring Metallica to Baia Mare”. With the needed support, any idea can be put in practice and even though you don’t achieve the perfect result from the beginning, at least you tried and, what is more, you may get feedback from a specialist and so you learn something from your mistake. Supporting young people’s ideas is just a small bonus that organisations bring in our lives as young people.
Telling you my volunteering story and how I got to DEIS Association would be too much of a parenthesis. I will limit myself to telling you what I gained (because I don’t feel that I lost anything). First of all, self-trust. One of my hobbies is singing, but before I had the opportunity to sing in front of other people, of course, I was quite nervous when I had to get out of my room with my guitar. And that can be generalised into one word that is the most important “product” of youth organisations: OPPORTUNITIES. In a similar way, I rediscovered my passion for writing (and reading) and I figured out that I can do something with it. What is more, at Baia Mare Youth Centre, I found a place where I can relax and be my true self because I got to truly know myself and I don’t feel judged, but encouraged and supported.
In Baia Mare (just like everywhere else) there are many young people who have no idea what they want and can do with their lives and they don’t even know that in their block of flats or just a few streets away they can find a youth worker. From what I gathered, we have relatively many compared to other cities from Romania, but no one really cares about them. In my opinion, in small cities commodity settles is quickly and, with it, many people become conservative, they get used to some things and activities and so they run away from new things. However, I strongly believe that once all the energy from organisations emerges in our city, it will create some kind of chain effect and more young people will have the courage, motivation and opportunity to break the routine and discover something that will help them first of all. Once we start “advertising”, more of them will be interested in organisations and volunteering and by helping the city harness its potential they will help themselves, they will get to know themselves better and grow better.
One more thing that young people in high school seem to forget although they want to study at universities abroad is that volunteering is important. For me, this was also one of the reasons why I started volunteering, and now not only that I don’t regret it because I discovered and rediscovered some qualities of myself and, in addition, I am always learning new things that will also help me in the future, but it motivates me to get involved in as many activities and projects for the Youth Capital. How cool would it look and what impact would it have on someone who reads your personal statement or recommendation letter, for example, if you say that you volunteered at an organisation involved in obtaining Romania’s Youth Capital title 2018 - 2019, in the city that was Romania’s Youth Capital in 2018 - 2019.
What is more, once we became capital, more young people would get to know the youth workers and get involved in volunteering activities, and that is a benefit for both themselves as young people, but also for us as young volunteers and organisations.
Honestly, I believe that Baia Mare is somewhat similar to the majority of young people from Romania. In Romania, society cares too little about what young people have to say, it ignores them because “they know nothing”. The features of one part of young people are generalised, young people who became that way just because of the lack of interest that society has for them and, the more they are ignored, more of them are silenced, more of them hide and for even more of them become so comfortable with the idea of knowing nothing that they really start to know nothing. Baia Mare is seen as a small city at the edge of the country, where the map is hanged and in which nothing important can be done because it can’t mean anything for Romania. For us, being Romania’s Youth Capital would be a much-needed contradiction that would help taking one step forward and coming closer to Romania’s awakening. Those who know nothing, from that city where the map is hanged won an important title. Those can do something. Actually “those” are already doing something, but they’re all hidden in their organisations, doing small things inside because they never had the chance to emerge to the surface. “Those” also have ideas, but they let them die all over the place because they don’t know what to do with them because they know nothing and they live in the city where the map is hanged.
We were kept in chains because of the way in which society sees us. We have something to say. We can do something and we can change something. We can break a stereotype. We are young people who “know nothing” and we live in Baia Mare, “where the map is hanged” and we can prove that it’s not how society thinks it is.
We are young people, teenagers to be more specific. We all have our problems and dramas and we all need to know that we are not alone. What is more, for us, young people from Baia Mare, there is an opportunity to shine.
(photo from an event organised by DEIS Association together with the Anti-drug Center Maramureș with the occasion of the International Anti-Drug Day #NuAmTimpDeDroguri)
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