Rummaging through the boxes, unpacked treasures of unnecessary things that we left in the storage room of our cottage during the big move, in search of missing pieces of figurines, I found one box in which were packed some memories from my father's early youth and childhood.
His notebook from the army, as well as the student booklet of several elementary and high school classes.
He is no longer among the living, and only by retelling the stories about his schooling that he told me and my brother, I can bring back my memory of the long past.
This notebook from the army deserves a special story, so I'll come back to it another time 馃檪
Dad went to the same primary school as his sister, me, and my younger brother.
Me and my brother were even taught several subjects in that school by the same professors as him.
All those who taught so many generations (difference of 30 years) are no longer among the living.
All that remains is the memory of them, of the teachers and professors of the old guard, who laid strong foundations for our knowledge and our education.
Although my father often lectured us and made us study, he was not a great student.
After completing his schooling and serving his military service, he got a job as a machine operator and stayed at that job all his life.
Probably, although not an excellent student, he wanted us to try to provide a little better living conditions through education...
In part, he succeeded in that because both my brother and I graduated from higher schools than him, and both of us today have better living conditions than he had.
I mean, father wasn't the best student, but he demanded that we be.
Reading the text written on the cover of his elementary school booklets, it is clear how much importance the then head of state Josip Broz Tito attached to education in those post-war years (World War II).
Study, study, and only study. That was the command of the Soviet leader Lenin, and so was Tito, a communist, with socialist convictions.
To the generations of new students who entered the school desks, he told them with a text that the students could read in their student booklets:
Study well and listen to your teachers. They want to make good, enlightened citizens of our country out of you. Strive to be the best you can be.
Those who study a little harder should put in a little more effort, and they will also achieve good results.
You must be persistent in your work; if one hour is not enough to learn a lesson, do two or more, but always master it well.
Study persistently and seriously because knowledge is of great importance for the citizens of post-socialist countries such as our Yugoslavia.
Always keep in mind that you have great obligations towards socialist Yugoslavia.
You should always remember that, together with the elders, young people of fifteen years of age and older fought for our new Yugoslavia and consciously went to their deaths, that in the fiercest battles they charged without thinking about whether they would come out of the battle alive.
Our people consciously gave their lives in order to provide a better life for future generations and the youth to come.
Don't ever forget that, and may you always have in your heart the aspiration to repay those victims in such a way that you will study well and become conscious citizens of socialist Yugoslavia.
Reading the text from my fathet booklets, which are decorated with not very good rating, I realized where my father was reading the instructions he was giving me and my brother 馃檪:
Study well and listen to your teachers.
Strive to be the best you can be.
You must be persistent in your work.
And we studied, we studied, we didn't give up, we were hardworking and dedicated.
And we did get better.
My dad, in the last year of elementary school
I will use this Thursday in the #ThrowbackThursday community and #TBT to remind myself of the advice I received during my schooling and how much listening to that advice has brought me good in my life...
Dad, even though you are no longer with us, thank you for that advices, for wanting the two of us to have better grades in our schoolbooks than you did in yours.
I think it was worth it.
