This essay was written by a 17-year young lady as a High School assignment.
The sun was hot and I had read way too much about the connections between Protestantism and Capitalism. I looked around the square and adjusted my glasses, wondering where everyone was -- if they would even come. Suddenly, "Bonan tagon" came from a timid voice behind me. "Jen," I thought, "jam komencas la renkontigxon." With the arrival of another Esperantist, the Louisville Esperanto-Klubo was born. I had waited over a year for that moment, which seemed to represent -- however humbly -- my aspirations and hopes concerning Esperanto (which, literally translated means "one who hopes"), the neutral language which I have adopted over the past two years, not only as another tongue, but as a mode of thinking about and living in the world.
Imagine one large room, containing three thousand one hundred thirty-three people representing over sixty-five countries and probably almost as many languages. Is this communicative hell?
No, quite the opposite. It is the World Esperanto Congress (UK), which I attended this past summer. I am out to meet the world, to know what it and its people are all about -- and that is exactly what I was able to do without shouting "HEY! I'm an American!" Rather, I said "HEY! I'm interested in who you are and how you live!" I met, ate and danced with, talked to, and sat next to people from every continent, who, through the tool of a common, neutral language, were able to understand each other across linguistic borders, in order to overcome cultural differences. I realized my dream of meeting the world as I traveled around the globe by talking to the others at a lunch table or in a discotheque. However, what the experience showed me was deeper than that: there is so much more to the world than I had ever imagined, and that I wanted to experience it more than ever with my newly adopted tongue as the vehicle.
When I have a goal, I set out to attain it. I am not waiting for Esperanto to find me -- rather; I am hunting it down. I wanted to share my passion for the world, her people, and the language that makes it all accessible with those around me, so I spoke out. The Louisville Esperanto-Klubo came directly from that voice -- which will hopefully only grow louder; and the passions of the two others who attended the first meeting -- a Turkish chemistry teacher and a student at a technical college -- realized it. We are not fluent; we are not buddies with famous linguists or influential Esperantists; we do not even have a meeting place. We want to learn Esperanto so that we can meet the world -- that is the purpose of the language.
I express my enthusiasm for this language in other ways as well: I am active in the Esperanto League for North America, helping to reorganize the youth division and serving on a committee to allocate funds for educational projects; I represented Louisville at the eighty-third UK in her sister city Montpellier, France, which included addressing the Congress during the opening ceremony and attending a reception by the mayor; when I renew my membership to the World Esperanto Association (UEA) this winter, I will join the delegate network, which offers information and assistance to those members of UEA who ask for it; and -- more important than any laundry list of memberships and committees -- I correspond with Esperantists from Chile, Germany, France, Japan, Belarus, and the Canary Islands, to name only a few. This is after two years of study -- I almost cannot wait to see what is in store for me next.
Describing one's life philosophy is a lifelong project, but I know that the philosophies and ideals Esperanto represents are a major part of mine. I know that the world is my home, its people are my family, and my life is one big family reunion complete with aunts pinching my cheeks and cousins I can't remember asking me how I've been. To me, Esperanto is the hope to meet all those long lost cousins, aunts, and uncles and to find out what they have been doing for all these years. It is also the desire to make the world a better place because different people can understand each other a little better. I have seen these hopes in letter-writing and electronic communication, I have seen it in the three thousand voices and faces from all over the world at the World Congress of Esperanto, and I saw it in the nervous hands of a Turkish man fumbling with a green Esperanto for Beginners book as we sat on a bench one hot day. I have seen Esperanto in myself -- I have adopted it and made it myself. I am one who hopes, I am Esperanto.
Esperanto Flag
Posted: May 21st, 1999
