A FLYING SNOWFLAKE
By Alpcan Karamanoglu
"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I – I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the
difference" -Robert Frost
"The less travelled road for most of us is this place that changed our lives and made us who we
are; or talking more personally, the road that I took, which led me here to Duino, made all the
changes in my life.
They say each way leads you to another adventure, another brand new part of your life. Although
I knew that this way that I travelled was leading me to perhaps the most difficult adventure of
a sixteen year old boy, I was brave enough to take the first flight of my life on 03/09/2012 and
leave home to look for another home.
If I think of the past two years, one of the most remarkable things I notice is how simple my
life would be without here. Staying with my family, still having my loved ones next to me, no
goodbyes that each time shut me down, no changing places every four months, no effort to get
used to a completely different atmosphere at least three times in a year.
How simple would everything be, right? But then, why did I take that plane and come to this
place? The answer was never easy for me until now. There had always been a big question mark
in my mind. Have I taken the right decision? Would everything be better if I was back home? I
never managed to answer these questions.
Nonetheless, now I know that it was the best decision that I have ever taken in my life. It was
the right thing to come to this small village that gave me everything I wanted in my life. It has
definitely been the most eccentric adventure that a sixteen-year-old boy, who never flew, had
never been abroad and had never left home for more than a week, could ever have.
All my life I have always imagined stepping into another land apart from Turkey, but
unfortunately, I did not have the chance. My dream was always to see other people's faces in
other geographies, simply because out of the cage seemed so much more interesting to me. The
world was too big to me to stay in that cage.
And then I decided to take this plane. From Istanbul to Venice, I remember everything; how
I felt, what advertisements were in the airport, the names of the people I sat down with in the
plane. Every single detail. Because it was the reality that I wanted to see, I wanted to feel
perhaps for the first time in my life.
I walked to the gate, more physically than actually. I just wanted to stay with my family forever
in the airport and not to take this plane. But I knew that I had to. What I have been taught is that
success comes together with scarifications.
So I left ten people that I have loved most in my life, including my best friends, in the airport and
flew here. I flew with teardrops forming the new kinds of dreams for the next two years, I flew
with more poems in my mind, more lyrics in my mouth than the clothes in my luggage, I flew
with the scream from my heart turning to a song after I saw the sign which said "Duino"…
I took the way less travelled by, because I wanted to be the different one. I took it despite all the
apprehensions that I had, because it was the only way to protect my snowflake. Now I may not
know about the forecast of my life after two months but I believe that the snowflake kept all its
silence and beauty, it stayed desirous enough to be different from all the others."
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| Holi: Indian Festival |
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| Last Tutorial picture... |
Success is not always something that you can hold by your hands, neither the memories, moments that are precious for us. However; this article that I wrote on my first flying memories, became one of those tangible moments. So I now feel that I am leaving some of my footprints on The Adriatic Times after my blog and private diary.
When the end is emerging,
I only realise that every breath that I am taking here is becoming more and more precious and unforgottable to me; and I know that from now on, the seconds are getting more and more meaningful as I climb up to the top before the cliffs...
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| Trapani/Sicily March'14 |
