Folyosó Autumn 2020

For the first Folyosó contest, which welcomed submissions in Hungarian as well as English, students were asked to respond in any written form, and in any way, to the following questions:

How do we determine what is important in life? What makes us change our mind about our priorities? Are priorities just a matter of personal preference, or do they have universal value? Whom do we affect with our decisions about what is and isn’t important? Who influences these decisions, and how?

There were so many strong entries, with such a range of approaches to these questions, that Diana Senechal decided to involve a jury. She, Judit Kéri, Marianna Jeneiné Fekete, Judit Kassainé Mrena, and Anikó Bánhegyesi read the finalist entries carefully and arrived at the following ranking:

First Place: Adél Mihályi
Second Place: Gergely Sülye, Erika Mária Szántó, Attila Marcell Kiss (each individually)
Third Place: Zsófia Szabina Gávris
Honorable Mention: Dániel Lipcsei, Heléna Laura Spinou, Gréta Tóth

We are delighted to present these pieces in the autumn issue of Folyosó! For information on the winter contest, go here.

Gréta Tóth

(First Folyosó Contest: Honorable Mention)

Priorities are the most determinative factors in a human being’s life. There is no one who does not have priorities; maybe it cannot be described with words, but we all have them, and they keep us going even during hard times. They do not just influence our personalities but also make us who we are. For instance, deep down all of us know that if we suddenly started liking math instead of literature, switched from physics to a language, or gave up drawing just to start learning how to sing, that would not be us anymore. That person who takes singing lessons instead of painting breathtaking pictures has nothing to do with the person we are right now.

Certainly, a question will arise in many of us: why do a person’s priorities change, then? Well, these changes mainly depend on life circumstances and can range from temporary to permanent. To set a powerful example, let’s imagine that there is a young girl with two little siblings. Their only family is their mother, who gets seriously infected by a virus and is taken to the hospital. There has been a temporary change in the girl’s priorities: her number one mission is now to manage everyday life with two siblings until her mother gets better. Some other examples, which are a bit more down-to-earth than the previous one and mean a permanent change in priorities, are going to university, having children, or starting work.

To sum up, we absolutely can’t imagine a world without priorities and without people differing in terms of what is important to them. Priorities make us strong and different from each other.

Heléna Laura Spinou

(First Folyosó Contest: Honorable Mention)

Do you think money is the most important thing in life? In my opinion, though life often seems to be too short and people often say “you only live once,” it doesn’t mean that we cannot live a beautiful life. On the one hand, I have many goals in my life and sometimes I’m a bit afraid that I won’t be able to achieve all of them and satisfy my parents. On the other hand, I think that it’s not a problem if you try to live your own life without trying to be the way others expect.

To tell the truth, I’m a bit stubborn and don’t always listen to others’ opinions. But if I do, I usually listen to my mother or my friends, because I know they are honest and trustworthy. Probably one of the most important things in life is to have somebody who you can always rely on and who keeps all your secrets. Close friends can cheer you up even if others can’t, and you can share some nice and unforgettable moments with them that you may later call your best memories.

As my Greek grandmother always says, “without a big fat Greek family you won’t live happily.”  She means that there are some friends who may later become your enemies after a big argument, so it’s better to trust your family members, who will definitely be by your side. Furthermore, I consider lifelong experiences especially important, because they make your everydays more colourful and you can learn something new from each of them.

Moreover, certain priorities come to people’s minds more readily than money: for instance, health and love, which are the keys of happiness. Not only those who have severe health problems, but also those with mental problems caused by addictions or disabilities have to face difficulties that may cause never-ending sadness. Often addicted people end up as dossers. If they can’t take a bath and they’re dirty, they can lose their job, and then it will be quite hard to find a new one.

In conclusion, I don’t agree with those who think that money is everything, because there are plenty of other things that a rich person might not have, but that would make him or her happy. A rich lonely person with health problems could give all his money to recover, have somebody by his side, or just lead a so-called “normal life.”

Dániel Lipcsei

(First Folyosó Contest: Honorable Mention)

It usually happens when I have to wake up early that I find myself in a dilemma: whether I should get out of bed and get ready sooner or fall asleep again in order to sleep a little bit more. Most of the time, I choose the second one but know that it is really disadvantageous and makes no sense. According to my experience, I am not the only one doing this in the mornings. At that moment, we consider sleeping more important than getting ready and being able to get more things done. I always promise myself that I won’t do it like that next time, but then the same thing happens. Why is this so?

There are many people whose life is ruled by laziness. Or, to generalize, we (except for a few) often do things in a particular way because another way would require more work and patience, so we arrive at an outcome that is more easily achieved but not really better. People usually choose laziness instead of putting effort into something because they think that it’s not worthy enough. In this waking-up situaton, people don’t get ready sooner, because they think that there will be another day when it will be more neccessary to get ready earlier and more comfortably. We still wait for that day to come. This is true in other cases too: “Doing my homework at 3 pm is not really important; I will do it at night.” Then the night comes, you write your homework, but it’s the end of the day; by then you are tired, so your homework isn’t as good as it could have been if you had done it in the afternoon.

To sum up, people often chose the shorter way to manage their daily tasks. Not because they’re unimportant but because they do them every day and get tired of them, as can be seen in the examples mentioned above.

Zsófia Szabina Gávris

(First Folyosó Contest: Third Place)

Azt gondolom, hogy a dolgok, amiket fontosnak találunk az életben szinte folyamatosan változnak, mivel mi is változunk. Ettől függetlenül befolyásolhatják a minket körülvevő tényezők is. Például az emberek, akikkel mindennap találkozunk, az adott családi helyzetünk, a párkapcsolati státuszunk és még sorolhatnám. Ezek mellett függ az életkorunktól is, hiszen amikor még gyerekek/fiatalok vagyunk másként gondolkodunk és vélekedünk ezekről a dolgokról. Egyrészt azért, mert kevesebb az ismeretünk, másrészt nem rendelkezünk még kellő mennyiségű tapasztalattal. Előtérbe helyezzük a szórakozást, barátokat és néha a kicsapongást. Ahogy telik az idő és érettebbé válunk, természetesen változik a véleményünk és a látásmódunk, illetve nyilván mi magunk is. Egyre inkább átértékeljük a dolgokat és felelősségteljesebbé válunk. Előrébb helyeződik a tanulás, a jövőnk, a fejlődés.

Véleményem szerint a fontosnak vélt dolgok sorrendjét a megfelelő értékrend meglétével tudjuk meghatározni. Nagyon sok esetben mérlegelnünk kell és komoly döntéseket kell hoznunk, melyek akkor sikerülnek ha az értékrendünk a helyén van. Pontosan nem tudom mikor, de kialakul bennünk egy igény arra, hogy fontossági sorrendet állítsunk fel a minket körülvevő dolgoknak. Személy szerint nekem ez az igény hamar kialakult, hiszen amellett, hogy évek óta sportolok, a tanulmányi átlagomra is nagy hangsúlyt fektetek. Illetve mindig is szerettem a barátaimmal lenni, így jelenleg is arra törekszem, hogy amikor lehetőségem engedi értékes időt töltsek el velük. A sport, a tanulás és a barátok mellett a családommal és a párommal is rengeteget vagyok, mert elképesztően fontosak számomra. Sokszor elmélkedem a sorrenden amit felállítottam, és rádöbbenek, hogy valószínűleg így a legoptimálisabb. Nem részletezném, mert szerintem ez mindenkinek a saját dolga, viszont boldog vagyok, hogy kézben tudok mindent tartani és ennek köszönhetően úgy érzem, hogy egyre több stabil pont van az életemben.

Összességében úgy gondolom, hogy a prioritás egyéni vonzódás, amit nem befolyásol az, hogy másoknak vagy a többségnek mi a fontos. Mi magunk vagyunk azok, akik ezt befolyásolhatjuk és megváltoztathatunk. E mellett legfőképpen önmagunkra van hatással az, hogy milyen sorrendbe helyezzük a minket körülvevő tényezőket. Szerintem, ha az értékrendünk a helyén van akkor fejlődéshez vezet az utunk. Ellenkező esetben, tapasztalhatók negatív irányba történő változások.

Végezetül kifejezetten fontosnak tartom azt, hogy néha szakítsunk időt arra, hogy magunkba tekintsünk és átgondoljuk az értékrendünket, a döntéseinket és a cselekedeteinket. Olykor a kérdést is feltehetjük magunknak: ”Jó ez így Nekem?”.

A kérdésre a választ pedig valahol a lelkünk mélyén kell megtalálnunk.