I'm a EU Member

When I had my first history class this year our teacher wished us “Happy new year” and said that from 1 January we are considered European citizens.
One of my schoolmates replied that we had been Europeans since ever.
I consider that what my colleague said has a deeper meaning than what we may think first. Despite the fact that Romania is part of East Europe, our history is linked to the history of the other European countries. There is a bond between all of us. We all depend on each other in some sort of way.
Despite that we are the same there are some big differences.
Romania was considered a country with many problems and now, that we are EU members, we “share” our problems with the rest of the EU contries. This is not seen with “good eyes”. We have already had a bad image and this is going to haunt us many years from now . And it’s sure that after all the actions we have made our history is going to be like a scarf .
We have made some big mistakes that only the time is going to erase or maybe we are convicted to carry our burden for good.
I don’t consider myself an outsider and we, the Romanians, shouldn’t consider that we don’t have the European qualities.
We bring something that the others don’t have: a long lasting tradition, we love what we have and we are not going to change just because the others want us to.
We have the courage and the passion which our Roman forefathers left us as our inheritance. This is something that money and time can’t change.
We are outsiders in some points of view because communism has left a big and ugly scarf on all the Romanians not only on the image of the country.
Our only chance is to get rid of all those memories and start thinking in a more positive way. We have to change our way of thinking, of acting because what we say and do now is going to have after-effects in the future. We don’t have the right to put in danger the next generations and we must try to leave behind us something good, which deserves to be appreciated.
Regarding what my schoolmate said we had our rights before becoming EU members but now we don’t have to beg for them anymore.
We must stand upright.
Many Romanians are seen with respect and have changed the course of history in many ways.
Time can judge us, not humans!

Anda Sas
11th E