One beautiful day, M. turned on one of her favorite songs and I felt like my soul soar to the sky, and my heart blossomed. It was a fabulous “Antonio Carlos Jobim & Elis Regina – Águas De Março (Waters Of March)” duet and some of Caetano Veloso songs. It was amazing Portuguese music.
I remembered when in my youth I dreamed of moving to Portugal, and M. said she dreamed about Portugal too. This day, about year ago, we found out that we both dreaming to live by the ocean for a long time. This is one of our three common cherished dreams.
We’ve been through fire and water. We survived covid-autumn preparing to move to Portugal. We went through three months of anxiety before the possible start of war, when people did not want to work with Ukrainians. We lived through the morning of the war and forced separation without knowing whether we will see each other again. I went through my desperate way to her in Germany. We lived as refugees in Germany for half a year, where I worked like crazy for pennies, feeling as we locked in a luxury cage. Almost a year has passed and we have come to the realization again – our dream is to live near the ocean in Portugal.
There are so many people and opinions around, and everyone thinks that he knows better how others should live. We were told that life in Germany is the height of wealth and happiness. And I pecked at this fishing rod, betraying our dreams. We lost everything in Ukraine, lost half a year of our lives in Germany. But instead, we got a clear sense of what we want and what we don’t want. Isn’t awareness the most important thing? It is very valuable indeed.
I quit my job a week ago. And this night we bought our one-way tickets to Portugal. One-way tickets to our dream. And no one knows what will happen next – never knows.