My high school journey

My high school years, very turbulent in my life, came after the carefree years of primary school.

The reason for this is not that high school is more serious than primary school...
A big problem for high school students of my generation in Yugoslavia in those years (1991-1995) was a civil war.
The civil war that led to the disintegration of our country began in the summer of 1991 and did not end until September of the same year.
From one republic to another, the war moved until 1995. It lasted exactly as long as my high school education... And it lasted exactly the same period...

But I can't complain much, because I lived in a republic where there were no fights. Generations of my peers from other republics certainly had much harder lives. War on the doorstep, blockades, shelling, refugees...

I saw the topic @galenkp provided for this week in #weekendengagement post
How were your high school years? Did you enjoy them, were you studious, lazy, bullied, socially or sports oriented, did you misbehave, lead by example, take the opportunity to build valuable skills and so on.

and I couldn't resist but write a few words on that topic.

You can imagine what my school years were like when mafia organizations ran amok on the streets of the city where I live.
More or less well-known young men, the same age or a little older than us, became mafia bosses, they wore guns and gold necklaces, stealing property for personal enrichment (war profiteering) and loss of life...
There is a movie with members of those criminal groups. As actors in the film, who were killed during the shooting of the film... the symbolic name "See you in the obituary".

While our parents barely made ends meet in the time of hyperinflation, in order to feed us, these criminals lived "On the high levsl".
And in constant search for young members, eager for the same life...

Yes, the hyperinflation (I was write here) of those years was terrible.
The head was lost for 100 DM.

Due to shortages, my school friends and I could not provide for ourselves growing up and schooling, like some of our peers in the neighboring countires

While life was easy in Austria, Germany, Greece, and Italy, we often shared sandwiches or had nothing to eat. But it was important that if one friend had a snack, everyone who didn't would get at least a bite...

Maybe that crisis brought us even closer? Maybe that's why we remained good friends even after school, because we struggled together growing up...

The school, like any other in those years, brought us serious knowledge.
We had 33 young men in our class (without a single girl), because it was an electrical engineering school, and in those years, girls did not aspire to such professions.

I was a below average student in the first year, but in the second, after insufficient success in the semester, I decided to turn the page.

I started to study regularly, to prepare for lectures, I devoted myself to mathematics and professional subjects and met the end of the second year with all the highest grades. As well as the end of the third and the end of the fourth.

These were not undeserved grades, I had to "Warm the chair" for each one.

Andt some other friends did that. That was probably the reason why, out of 33 of us, 7 of us found ourselves in the amphitheater of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering in Belgrade after successfully completing the entrance exam (all those who expressed their desire for that faculty, passed the entrance exams and were enrolled as students on the budget).

I don't have any special pictures from that period, as I wrote, we lived in a time of crisis. There is a photo from the prom. Thirty three of us in suits... The only female was the class teacher 🙂

Our mission in high school was not exclusively to acquire knowledge (unfortunately), but we had the mission of surviving like a normal world.

It was necessary to avoid the pitfalls of the possibility of easy entry into criminal groups (which lured from all sides), to remain honest, on the right side of the law, not to become a bully and a criminal.
And learn something along the way - and we learned a lot, as can be seen from our later lives.
All of us became successful young people, with good careers and lives...

We remained friends for life.
Proof of our friendship, one Viber group with 25 of the 33 of us at the end of the fourth year and at the prom (but one of us couldn't make it to the prom, so there were thirty-two of us).
Who do you think I am? 100 Ecency points to the first person who finds me 🙂

And the proof is also the photos of joint gatherings in bars, from time to time 🙂