On the Instagram social network, a well-known man shared a post dedicated to commemorating Lithuania’s accession to the European Union.
In the post, he attached a photo of himself as a teenager, in which Orij was 15 years old.
“Exactly 20 years ago, on the first day of the most beautiful and my favorite month of the year (May), the best thing that could happen to Lithuania then happened. We joined the European Union. Then, through the eyes of a teenager (15 years old), when I didn’t know anything about politics and didn’t want to know, everything looked like this: either we stay with the post-Soviet, backward, impoverished and drunken countries, or we join those beautiful, luxurious, ones where you want to to live
Great Britain, Germany, France, Spain, Ireland, Holland, Denmark and all the others – then they were infinitely far from us, not even geographically, but in what those countries looked like, how they lived, what happened in them.
All we teenagers knew then was that if we joined, we would be able to travel freely wherever we wanted and maybe even live wherever we wanted.
Also, I remember, it seemed that all of a sudden, not Russian, but English, would be the language used by all of Lithuania. Such a childlike protein. Maybe I didn’t understand much more. But I remember, I really, really wanted to become a part of that good, well-living Europe. And that day, I was at Europa Square with my friends, we got EU flags, we waved them at a solemn concert, where ŽAS, B’Avarija and Picasso played, they played songs about Europe at that time.
Now, 20 years later, I understand much more. Not only do I understand, I see how our country has changed, how many good things have happened, how life has improved, how many opportunities have opened up for us.
And that teenage wish came true – we can really travel wherever we want. There is no need to stand in queues at the visas and bother getting them. It’s funny that in many places, far from Europe, where people have never even heard the name of Lithuania, they don’t really know where it is, when I say where I’m from, when I mention that I’m from the European continent, people ask me only one thing: you belong to the EU?! This was asked in Vietnam, Zanzibar and a month ago when I was traveling in the Republic of South Africa.
You know what happens when I say YES WE DO. “Ooo, then you live well there, you have money,” they tell me. Even there, very far away, they heard, they know something, that there are two Europes. The one who is struggling and lives more sadly, and the one where life is beautiful,” Orijus wrote under the shared post.
Followers’ comments poured in under the post. People could not be surprised by Orija’s hairstyle as a teenager.
