folyosó

The First Sunrise

Lili Forgács

“Are you ready to climb it?” asked Thomas, curious whether his friend had changed his mind about their plan.

“Yes, I am. I couldn’t be readier than I am now,” answered George in a low tone.

The two of them were standing in front of a huge, approximately five-meter-high, graffiti-decorated wall that surrounded Seattle, the settlement where they lived. The wall had been standing there ever since the boys could remember. Its existence was never questioned; it protected them from their enemies every time they were attacked. Although they hadn’t fought with anybody for more than twenty-five years, one could never be sure what the future might hold, so the wall remained.

Thomas and George had been best friends their whole lives long and had a lot in common. For instance, both of them had always been curious about what was outside the town. They asked a lot of people, but nobody knew the answer. Only merchants could leave Seattle, but they were too busy to talk about the unknown. Their parents had also tried to convince them that there was nothing interesting that was worth knowing about, but the boys couldn’t stop wondering.

One day they were playing ball games together in Thomas’s back yard.

“Hey, George,” Thomas started. “Have you ever seen a sunrise? It is said to be the most beautiful thing in the world.”

“Honestly? I’ve never,” George answered while catching the ball. “Why?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Thomas, don’t do this, please! I know you well enough to know when you have something on your mind. So tell me, what is it?”

“How about if I say that tomorrow we will watch the sunrise together?”

“Then I will response with a question: what if it is illegal to climb up the wall?”

“We will climb up the wall,” Thomas answered in such a way that George couldn’t say no.

The two friends met at five o’clock in a small and dark street that ended at the wall. They had one hour and thirteen minutes to climb up. They thought it would be easier than it was. The wall was unexpectedly slippery, and it was hard to find the perfect cracks that could help them hold on, but finally, with the help of ice axes, they reached the top just in time.

“It’s absolutely breathtaking,” George sighed.

“I told you.”

The boys just stood there for a few minutes and enjoyed the light of the first rays of the Sun.

“Do you think the police will catch us?” Thomas asked.

“Surely, but it’s worth it.”

They waited until the Sun appeared wholly, then left the place silently.

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Purpose

Simon Stoica-Bodor Hi, my name is Simon, and I’m going to talk about the real source. You can feel it

The Question

Helka Ondok

This story is about two best friends, Emily and Olivia. They were the epitome of ‘best friends forever.’ They did everything together, knew each other like sisters do, and also had a little tradition: every last Friday of the month, Emily would bring an interesting fact to tell Olivia.

Years passed by this way.

In high school they started drifting away from each other, they talked less and less, but neither of them forgot about their tradition.

One day Emily stopped Olivia in the school hallway and started telling her about that day’s fact. It was about ‘the breaking of the fourth wall.’

Considering Olivia had never heard about it before, she was quite fascinated by Emily’s explanation of the topic.

Once she knew what it meant (when a fictional character acknowledges that they are fictional, and they make direct or indirect contact with the audience) she was quite enthralled by it.

Of course, because she was the type of person who overthinks everything, she asked Emily a very funny question. Olivia wanted to know whether, if they were in a short story about a wall, her question would count as breaking the fourth wall.

Both girls laughed at this and went on with their day.

To this day they still don’t know how close they were to the truth.

Finally, to answer Olivia’s question: Yes, it did count as breaking the fourth wall.

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Purpose

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The Vanishing Wall

Bence Rimóczi

One day a man who wanted to explore the world went on a trip. On this excursion, he came across a small town divided by a huge wall. This wall would go back to the earth every two days and just disappear for a whole day. When the wall was up, people who lived around it would always fight and say bad things to each other from one side to the other.  Two days passed. No more fighting. Everyone lived peacefully. No one said insulting things to each other. After this, the man was very confused and didn’t want to visit the town anymore because he was afraid of the fights.

Sometimes, we don’t even realize that we also have a wall called the internet in our life. It has a lot of advantages, but we often cross the border by saying hurtful things to each other. In conclusion, we shouldn’t only be nice to people when “the wall disappears,” but also when online.

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Purpose

Simon Stoica-Bodor Hi, my name is Simon, and I’m going to talk about the real source. You can feel it

Your Castle’s Wall

Başak Ünal

A high thick masonry structure forming a long rampart or an enclosure chiefly for defense. — That’s the definition of the word “wall” according to Merriam Webster. When I first saw the definition five minutes ago, there was only one thing that made me pause for a second: “for defense.” 

People are like castles. In their early years, they haven’t yet faced any real dangers and thus don’t know how to defend themselves. They usually don’t have to, either. These times are spent in peace and order. If they get used to comfort and behave carelessly, they will be left vulnerable. They’ll get hurt…. Everything is permissible in war and human relations. The more vulnerable you are, the more you attract the enemy. The more you bleed, the more you pull the vampire. 

At this point, the similarity between a person and a castle can amaze you because they also defend against outsiders in the same way: by building a wall. Of course, the wall’s strength may vary depending on its material, how badly you are hurt, its foundation, etc. Our human or castle is now ready for the next battle. 

What are the advantages of building a wall? First, it provides a highly reliable protection during a war (or in a relationship, but that might be unnecessary to mention, as they are basically the same thing). Second, it is a deterrent against the enemy and prevents them from attacking. As the blood attracts the vampire, a stake can also keep it at bay. The wall makes you feel safe even when you are not under attack. 

The castle was innocent. Someone attacked. It was damaged. Walls were built. The enemy attacked again. The castle defended itself. The attack failed. Now what? The walls will have no use anymore but also can’t be undone. Not only because it is almost impossible physically, but also because they will be needed when the next enemy comes. If you enclose the castle without a gap, no evil can go through the walls and hurt you. Of course evil isn’t the only thing that can’t go through those walls. The problem starts here. While you are safe between the four walls (or round walls) of the castle, you lock yourself there. Congratulations, you are now a very safe prisoner. 

The only understandable means of escape is putting a door in your walls. It may seem simple, but I assure you, it is not. Where do you put the keys? If you can reach them, evil can too. When do you open that door? Is it safe? Do you think it is rational to open it? What is rational?  How can you say if someone will betray you? What if they are the love of your life and you’ll miss the opportunity because of your trust issues? Well, what is trust? How can you trust someone? Do you feel safe? Are you feeling paranoid? Maybe you have the right to be paranoid. Is this a mental illness? How about checking a therapist, now that could help. Do you really want to give your keys to a stranger? Let’s stay inside for now. Let’s get rid of the keys. Let’s remove the door. Let’s pour more concrete. That’s better.  

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Purpose

Simon Stoica-Bodor Hi, my name is Simon, and I’m going to talk about the real source. You can feel it

Neverending Wall

Gergely Sülye

At the bottom
where all begins,
everyone who sits
just looks like grains
in a shore of infinite sand.
Some try to scale this wall,
hoping to reach the top and stand
where many have watched others fall.
It is but a dream to reach for the skies,
to successfully progress in the ascent.
Yet all of us live just to try and fail again.
With nothing but hopes to one day reach so high,
and only have one thing to do, to look not up, but down.

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Purpose

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Perfection

Áron Antal

The Wall of Berlin was demolished in 1989; it was demolished by the enormous crowd gathered around the two sides of the wall, the curtain that separated Europe into two totally different parts, both of whom wanted to reunite. Because of all the people who reunited at those moments when the walls were falling down, the joy in the tears of thousands and thousands of people, at a reunion so huge, the guards couldn’t do anything but join the revolt, and sing with the crowd as the heavy concrete blocks were crashing to the ground, falling to pieces so as to resemble the fall of the Soviet Union. To destroy the structure that had destroyed many lives, and to commemorate those who could escape the “imprisonment” by any means, even if they had to give their life as the passport. It was a beautiful day, to see the hundreds of Wartburgs, Trabants and Ladas rolling to the other side, to freedom. On that day, people, the crowd showed that the common man, if organised and led by a common will, could cause the fall of one of the biggest nations at the time. And who would have thought that the destruction of the wall would lead to the fall of the castle?

But nowadays, people don’t realise how powerful they could be, and what big changes they could make to the world. Nowadays, people try to think that they live in an ideological world, where everything is available and must be. That has made people harmless towards the influence of leaders and dictators, and care-free towards other human beings and social norms and responsibilities. Why help someone stuck in the mud, when my hands will get dirty? Why do anything if I can live a perfect life and I can have anything; as my government says: Consume! Things will give you happiness! You will be happy, because you can have everything, and they, the upper 10,000, will be happy because they made you think that by giving them your income, you will be happy! Consume while you can, because at some point, they will consume you! You will be dependent on what you buy, and they will rule this world, because they will have everything!

Today’s social ideology is that if you do not succeed on others’ terms, you are nothing. If you’re not perfect in every way possible, you are worthless. If you don’t have the perfect body, the perfect lover, the perfect house, car, and a lot of money, you are worthless. Miss out on the real beauties of life, because if not, you will be worthless. Why go on trips, enjoy your meals, watch as the sun rises, and just wonder about your own existence on a sunny summer afternoon, if you could study and work the hell out of your soul to live the perfect life? You can only achieve perfection if you don’t think; instead, let others think about what is good for you. You must never be satisfied with yourself, because constant self-improvement, towards that unreachable goal that social expectations set for you, is the true key to The Perfection.

People today are not measured by their soul, but by their wealth and their appearance. If that had been the case in 1989, that wall would still be standing where it stood.

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Purpose

Simon Stoica-Bodor Hi, my name is Simon, and I’m going to talk about the real source. You can feel it

Letter from the Editor

Folyosó began in the spring of 2020, when school in Hungary had gone online in response to COVID-19. After a brief interlude of in-person classes in the fall, we have been back online since mid-November, with ongoing hopes of returning to school. During this time, students have written essays, stories, short scenes, contest entries, and more; this issue features some of these winter fruits, along with Lilla Kassai’s art.

We proudly present our first international contest, for which students wrote pieces about imaginary inventions. The jury (Judit Kéri, Anikó Bánhegyesi, Nándor Szűcs, Edit Göröcs, and I) had a difficult time ranking the ten finalists; while we eventually chose winners, we are delighted to publish all ten pieces here. It was an honor to receive entries from the Lycée Sainte-Pulchérie in Istanbul, as well as from many Varga students; we hope to bring the two schools and others together for an online Folyosó event this spring.

For the scenes based on A Midsummer Night’s Dream, students were supposed to start with something in the play and take it in a surprising direction. The scenes published here—Áron Antal’s “Something Even Stranger,” Gréta Tóth’s “A Midsummer Night’s Gestalt,” Gergely Sülye’s “As from a Voyage,” Dorottya Turza’s “The Surprise of the Century,” Dávid Csáki’s “Let Him Roar Again,” Bertalan Szegi’s “Act 1, Scene 1,” and Zsófia Szabina Gávris’s “A Nice Article”—abound with wit, emotion, and surprise.

This is also the first time that we feature writers from Class 9.B (which I teach once a week); I have been impressed with this class’s imagination and look forward to publishing more of their work.

The winter issue does not include any writings from the Orwell project, but we may publish a few of them in the spring. For this project, Varga students joined with a class of tenth-graders at Columbia Secondary School to read and discuss Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. It was a great experience; you can read much more about it on the project website.

Some of the pieces in this issue grapple with difficult problems: isolation, introspection, death and grief, political vanity, and disillusionment; others delight in books, friendship, everyday mishaps and mistakes, and visions of the future. The issue’s overall spirit brings to mind William Blake’s “Auguries of Innocence“: not just the famous lines

It is right it should be so 
Man was made for Joy & Woe 
And when this we rightly know 
Thro the World we safely go 

but much more. In this issue you will find a procession of experience, thoughts, questions: from Szabina Tamara Da Cunha Carvalho’s essay “The Problem with BLM Movements in Hungary” to Hunor Gangel’s “From Late to Early”; from Gergely Sülye’s “Transformation” to Lili Forgács’s “The Truth”; from Sándor Tor’s “Is This the Future?” to Zsófia Vona’s “A Dream Come True”; from Sándor Szakács’s “Challenging Times” to Adél Mihályi’s “Personalities”; from Bettina Czékus’s “Arbya” to Eszter Aletta Hevesi’s “The Story of Gen E”; from Tamás Takács’s “Michael the Caterpillar” to Botond Vass’s “The Shelter.”

We wish you good health, happy winter reading, and many returns! As ever, we welcome your submissions and comments.

Sincerely,

Diana Senechal
English and Civilization Teacher
Editor of Folyosó

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About the Contributors

Áron Antal likes to spend his time in nature and in the bordering land around his town; interested in old

About the Contributors

Áron Antal likes to spend his time in nature and in the bordering land around his town; interested in old machinery, cars and motorcycles especially, and things from the mid-nineteenth century to the 90s, as well as the lifestyle of that era, he is trying to include these in his stories and build them a plot, an important role. 

Szabina Carvalho wanted to vent about social justice warriors.

Dávid Csáki is no playwright, but a little flexibility never hurt anyone.

Bettina Czékus is a girl who will ignore you while she’s reading.

Lili Forgács is a sixteen-year-old girl with an enormous heart and even larger dreams.

My name is Hunor Gangel and I am just a normal high school student.

Zsófia Gávris is a sixteen-year-old girl who sees the positive side of everything and tries to find the beautiful things in her everydays.

Eszter Aletta Hevesi is a girl from Törökszentmiklós who is really interested in controversies and how to have a better lifestyle. She is always working on to be her best self and help everybody.

Kázmér Kaposvári: I would say I am rather creative and have ideas, but most important of all, I create something out of those ideas.

My name is Lilla Kassai, and my favourite pastime is drawing, painting, reading and listening to music. That’s where I gain my inspiration for my paintings and writings. I am looking for a type of future where I stay in connection with arts.

Viktória Kiss is a soon-to-be sixteen year old girl who advocates for a great balance between fitness and studying.

Defne Lal Koçer knows to get the joy out of life even when it’s wicked.

Ilona Králik is just a girl at the beginning of her life, but she already has big goals for her future.

I am Adél Mihályi, and I am not good at speaking, so I write.

Deniz Pala needs to invest more time in the real world than in fictional ones.

My name is Bernadett Sági and I am so excited, because this is the first time that my work has been published on the internet.

According to Gergely Sülye, the quarantine of 2020 is something you can conveniently use for some serious self-improvement at home.

Alexandra Süveges suggests: ‘be a curse, not cursed.’

Katalin Szabó is a girl who turned her can’ts into cans and her dreams into plans.

Lídia Szabó never knows what is going on but still manages to talk herself out of things.

Sándor Szakács is a guy from Martfű who tends to overcomplicate things.

Bertalán Szegi is just a 16-year-old boy who plays handball and tries to solve his homework.

Sándor Tor says, “I’m just a simple person who likes to try some new things.”

Gréta Tóth says, “Anything you say or do may be used in my story!”

Dorottya Turza: I’m like a book you have to read. A book can’t read itself to you. It doesn’t even know what it’s about.

Petra Varga: Dried roses, pictures, chansons, memories, poems. Rationalist….

Botond Vass is a guy who likes physical activities as well as reading books so he involves these in his everyday routines.

Zsófia Vona is a binge-watcher, who also likes to read amazing stories.

Máté Zupkó is a quiet and sarcastic guy, with low self-confidence, but who still achieved something.

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Letter from the Editor

Folyosó began in the spring of 2020, when school in Hungary had gone online in response to COVID-19. After a

Two Photographs

Lilla Kassai

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Folyosó began in the spring of 2020, when school in Hungary had gone online in response to COVID-19. After a

About the Contributors

Áron Antal likes to spend his time in nature and in the bordering land around his town; interested in old

Still Life with Fruit

Lilla Kassai

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Letter from the Editor

Folyosó began in the spring of 2020, when school in Hungary had gone online in response to COVID-19. After a

About the Contributors

Áron Antal likes to spend his time in nature and in the bordering land around his town; interested in old

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