My first Publication Alumni Magazine21-online | Page 23

ISSUE 21, JUNE 2019
because my back hurts and I don’t even know what I have
in there. It’s like I’ve been carrying rocks, and it’s just two
textbooks and the Chromebook. I hope that I manage to do
this better from now on, bring just one thing.
I have a cliché question for you: where do you see
yourself in 10 years?
In 10 years I hope to be working with the European Space
Agency. I don’t know if it’s a viable plan, but let’s hope
so. Until then I should have finished any bachelor’s and
master’s degrees, and I think I should be able to be working
there. I really want to be making a difference with that,
because that’s the point of everything – to come up with
technologies to make the future better (another cliché).
But it’s true!
Yes, and I really hope I’ll be working like that, because as
a whole, space work is abstract, intuitively it doesn’t seem
to be directly affecting our lives, but many technologies
that have been developed for space, are then transferred
to earth and are actually very helpful, for example, water
purification. Things like this can be crucial for different
societies.
What would you like to say to the incoming class of
8 th graders?
I really hope for them to take this advice to take everything
from the school. And it will change their lives. As long as they
take their whole experience here as an opportunity and not
as something they just have to do. And I really envy them for
the opportunities that are opening, for example the SCIFI
center. This year I’ve been spending so much time there, just
trying to soak in what’s happening. And they will really have
the opportunity to work there, as the current 8 th graders
already do. They will probably have a completely different
experience from mine, everything will change in 5 years. But,
this spirit of the school, of pushing you farther, opening your
mind, making you a global citizen – I don’t think it’s going
away. People need to take that and actually make it part of
themselves, understand it and it will be a lot easier to be
here, a lot more enjoying and pleasant, something they will
remember fondly, to have all these experiences, and they will
always have something to say and to talk about, to be doing.
It’s just experiences have to be experienced and they will
define what they do here and what their memories would be.
Nobody can do it for them.
What about all the people you are leaving behind, the
current students?
Well, for the 11 th graders – my message is that it will soon
be over. For the 10 th and 11 th graders, I feel like the future
is not so far away, which is the most important. And, they
are going to leave the school, most probably Bulgaria, and
I would advise them to just be the people they want to be
here and to act in such a way that when they remember
21
their years here, they remember wonderful friends and
amazing projects and things they can really be proud of,
not just existing somewhere.
We will soon be welcoming you to the huge circle of ACS
alumni. What’s your message to your then fellow alumni?
Don’t forget your school, because there are amazing things
happening at ACS, amazing students from all grade
levels doing wonderful work for the community here, for
Bulgarian society. Everyone has such interesting ideas and
they put them into practice, it’s not just theoretical. We
have so many people willing to help. I remember during
the blood drive when the blood donation people came, they
just started complaining at the end because there were too
many ACS people wanting to donate. You can come to all of
the events, the musicals, the BG drama, the English drama.
It’s just – ACS is full of life and it’s, as I said, it’s changing
so rapidly, so no matter when you have graduated, you will
find something new here. So, even for myself, I wish that I
don’t forget that and that I manage to come here often and
follow what’s happening at the school.