When I graduated from high school, the mothers of my friends kept asking me if I would not marry anymore and gave me the example of girls who had been looking for a suitable husband since they were in high school. I told them that education was much more important to me than material things, and they exclaimed, “But you’re always talking about teaching, as if you were going to become a headmistress!” and advised their daughters not to communicate with me, lest they get “infected” with my love of books and miss their chance for a successful marriage. The Roma often use this expression ironically because they think it is impossible for a person of our ethnicity to occupy a director’s chair. But I was not of the same opinion and I was even more ambitious to learn and be a role model for other girls. I wanted to prove to my neighbours that I could make it in any profession as long as I set my mind to it.
Today, in my home village of Govedare, I am the only Roma student. This year (2021) I am graduating from the third year of the specialty “Primary School Pedagogy with a Foreign Language” at Plovdiv University “Paisii Hilendarski”. Studying did not prevent me from starting a family – last summer I married my friend Stoycho. I am 21 years old and life is ahead of me with unlimited opportunities to achieve my dreams. And the biggest of them has always been to become an elementary teacher. I remember watching the lady from the desk back in second grade, dreaming of sitting in her shoes and I couldn’t imagine anything better than giving knowledge and confidence to children.
After finishing my primary education I enrolled in a vocational school of hairdressing and catering in Pazardzhik. I was studying to be a chef, but mentally I didn’t take my eyes off the teaching bench. Around that time, I started teaching classes for the children at the Seventh-day Adventist Church. We prepared skits, songs, and poems that I found on the Internet or wrote myself, and we gave recitals for major Christian holidays and for March 8. I felt out of place around the children and really enjoyed interacting with them. This also confirmed my conviction that teaching was my profession.
In the 11th grade I met members of the Amalipe Foundation and the youth organization Arete, who held English courses twice a week after our classes. At the Roma youth camps they organized I saw how many people from our ethnic group are highly educated and professionally fulfilled. This motivated me to make my decision to study, despite the fact that no one in my family has a university degree. I graduated from high school with excellent grades and that same summer I was accepted in the first ranking at Plovdiv University. My joy was immeasurable.
Joining the Role Models in Early Childhood Network’s internship program was the key moment on my path to the noble teaching profession and personal success. Thanks to this programme of the Trust for a Social Alternative, I gained confidence in my abilities to be an agent of beneficial change in the lives of the most important part of our community – the children. I knew that God was also guiding and helping me by placing the right people beside me at the right time. It wasn’t easy getting to 3rd year, each session was a new challenge. There were times when I cried and despaired that I wouldn’t make it through all the exams, but my husband was invariably by my side saying, “Head up! I believe in you, you can do it!” That’s why I married him – he always and in everything supports me to move forward.
For two years I have been an educational mediator in my primary school “Father Paisii” in Govedare. I work with the families of young students and substitute teachers when someone is sick or on vacation. Last year I decided to organize a celebration for the 8th of March – the ladies in the neighbourhood received flowers, balloons and cards that were handmade by the children after school. The initiative was sponsored by the headmistress of the school. All the women blossomed in smiles on our special day. I have learnt this respect for others at home, from my wonderful parents. I will hardly ever be able to repay them because they sacrificed a lot for me to get a good education. Some time ago, my father went to work in Germany, and although we were able to take the whole family, my mother stayed with me. The two lived apart for years until I finished school. Without their dedication and support, I wouldn’t be at university now, have a job and my own car.
When they meet me, the children in the neighborhood smile and greet me, and the mothers now say to their children, “Be like Vili, study so that one day you won’t wonder where to work, whether to go cherry picking or cutting parsley under the sun. I am proud that I managed to change the attitude of the Roma in my community towards the necessity of education.” So far I am the only student in Govedare, but several other girls have expressed interest in continuing their studies. The future where one of us will be the next headmistress of the school in our home village is coming!