Have you ever felt like you’ve been stuck in between cultures your whole life? Like all your life, you have only ever known one way of living and then once you get moved to the other side of the world due to your parents wanting a ‘better future’ for you, you feel like the only closure you received from your home country is now lost. You enter a new environment with new people and new ways to do things and ‘get no say’ as to what goes on whatsoever because you are just a ‘kid’.

However, eventually as humans we adapt to new surroundings and eventually forget how our old nurturing environment really seemed like. In the beginning you try and surround yourself with people that have gone through similar experiences like yours, but they eventually end up changing and adapting to the culture at the country you are living in because what else can they do, right? But what if you don’t want to change? What if you don’t want to change the ways you behave just to conform to society and be who you truly are but the environment that you are in stops you from doing so? Well, like everyone says you just have to ‘deal with it’ and now you are stuck doing VCE and drowning in coursework just to have ‘a better future’ so you can be stable and enjoy the ‘luxuries in life’.

READ MORE: Bullying? It happens … but #notthisgirl

Twenty years’ time sounds just about right as to what they are describing, but it’s just now that you are stuck. You don’t fit in with Greeks that have come straight from Greece, and then again you also don’t fit in with the second or third generation of Greeks so you make friends with other cultures. But even still you don’t fit in yet again, making you feel lost and stuck in between cultures which eventually leaves you running in one long journey to an uncertain ‘success’ so you can ‘be stable’. Six years gone to waste, and now university is the pathway for you and if you don’t have a degree, society concludes that you are not a ‘good’ person.

Well, at least by the end of all that torture, let’s hope that you’re not ‘stuck’ because right at this moment it feels like all the work and effort that you put in is unnoticed and worthless. Sure they say ‘no pain no gain’ but where is the gain? Guess that leaves you to being stuck yet again.

Sam

VCE, Greek

READ MORE: Mathitofrenia student newspaper: Willing to live

Are you interested in writing? Neos Kosmos is offering students from Greek schools across Australia the opportunity to contribute to a supplement for our newspaper written entirely by students.The idea for the project came about to give students of Modern Greek the opportunity to use their language skills in an enjoyable way. Not only will it improve their Greek, but it will also young people a platform to express their thoughts, needs, and to also raise their concerns about what is happening in the world around them.

While the Greek language stories can be about any issue whatsoever, we also welcome articles written in English but with a focus on issues of interest to the diaspora. The project is open to students of all year levels, from kindergarten right through to high school, and all levels of Greek and English. We also welcome photographs and videos for our site.

If successful, the Neos Kosmos team believes that the project will have positive benefits on Greek language education and will also highlight issues of importance to young people regarding their Greek heritage. And our main objective from a social perspective is to engage with young people and get them thinking.For further information, Greek schools across the country are encouraged to contact Neos Kosmos. Email editor@neoskosmos.com.au