Europe (2008–2024)

I was born in socialist Czechoslovakia, behind the Iron Curtain.
My first memory of Europe goes back to 1990. I was ten years old when the borders opened and my parents took me shopping to neighbouring Austria. Suddenly, there were things we had never had access to before — Lego sets, Walkmans, colourful clothes. I was completely fascinated. One detail, however, disrupted this new world: signs reading “Slovaks, do not steal.”

Today, more than three decades later, we are part of Europe. We move freely, feel at home, and crossing borders has become routine. Yet fear has not disappeared — it has only changed direction. Just as Austrians once feared us, many Europeans today fear newcomers. Once again, we speak of borders, walls, and new iron curtains meant to protect us from imagined threats.

The idealised sense of belonging to Europe is disturbed by small but telling details — such as a sign reading “Do not litter!”, which I found a few years ago in a village near the Austrian–Slovak border, where it still stands today.

Europe and democracy are not permanent states, nor guarantees. As an adult, I never want to return to the feeling of humiliation I experienced as a child, reading in Vienna that I should not steal. Back then, we were not used to goods being freely accessible, unlocked, or unchained. If something was available, we believed it should be taken. I do not want to return to that world. Europe, and our place within it, is not given automatically — it is the result of values that must be protected and actively maintained. Remaining part of it is a decision we must make again and again.