Last Tuesday, the most notable contemporary Macedonian passed away in a car accident. He was a 26-years old singer, the most popular one in the Balkans. He led a fast life, just like Cobain, Hendrix, Joplin, and Morrison. Unlike them, he did not drink and take drugs; he sang on humanitarian concerts instead. The people of Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina have always been thankful to him for the assistance he provided to them, at times when they desperately needed it. "The Elvis Presley of the Balkans", as he was described by BBC, was the only person who managed to unite the disunited people of former Yugoslavia. His music and humanitarian work proved to be stronger than the bitter memories of ethnic conflicts that have existed in this piece of the world since the bloody 1990s.
Since the tragic accident that happened a few days ago, I have been thinking a lot about life, friendship, and God, or the lack thereof. I have thought of several patches of memory that I would never remember if it were not for the unfortunate event which shook the entire Balkan Peninsula. Even though I have never listened to his albums, I knew many of his songs. He was omnipresent here; you would hear his songs wherever you went. People of all ages loved him and viewed him as the person who united the quarrelsome fractions of the Macedonian people. In the past days, no one here can focus on work and function properly; everyone is burdened by the death of the brightest star on the Balkan sky.
I feel I need to tell you that I care about you. Since no one knows what may happen tomorrow, I would like to say that I am happy I met you and made you my friends. You people have shaped my life, and that is something truly essential.
To all of you who are in the House - good luck with your interviews. I miss the sunset in Ithaca; I used to view it from the front porch, the one where we had fun on July 4. I hope you will have time to enjoy there and reminisce on the unique experience we had last summer.
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Aleks, I'm glad you posted this, as I was thinking about you this afternoon. I'm on my school's Academic League team - it's a trivia competition that we play against other schools, like a sport. Anyway, one of the questions was "What is the newest country in the world?" and someone answered, "Macedonia."
"No, you bastard, Macedonia was independent in 1991," I answered. And because you and, by extension, TASP, are inextricably linked with Macedonia in my mind, I had an enormous flashback and became so caught up in it that I forgot to say "East Timor." The other team got the point.
Wrong Abigail (and other team)! The newest country in the world is in fact Montenegro, another consequence of the surgent nationalistic tendencies in Eastern Europe. The joys of being a quiz bowl nerd...
To everyone at Cornell: I hope that you all have scintillating interviews and that the House is bringing back lots of happy memories. Ah, to stroll those cobblestone (were they? I can't remember, how sad) Ithaca sidewalks again :)
Oh, wow, David, you're right. *facesmack* Jeez. How could I forget Montenegro?
(Also, I'll answer your letter soon. Like, November 2.)
East Timor has been independent since the late 1990s, right?
Montenegro has been independent for more than a year.
The guys who said Macedonia probably thought of Montenegro. Similar countries, similar demographics, similar names (a bit).
Have fun, guys. Miss you
You are beautiful and I miss you more than words can say, and I mean this.
Incidentally, Abigail, I'm mailing your letter tomorrow.
You can try, but I won't get it for a while - there's no mail in San Diego. Things are really getting bad here, guys.
Oh, and East Timor was independent in 2002.
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