My story

My parents walked across the border from Hungary into Austria during the 1956 revolution with only the clothes on their backs. My mother was about four months pregnant with me and my brother was 18 months old. My dad also had his younger brother and another sister and her family, and they walked away from all they had ever known and loved to find a better life in Australia. I was born at Albury Base Hospital, just across the river from Bonegila refugee camp in March 1957. From there we were sponsored by a lovely family in Tasmania, where my dad was given a job and we were given a home. Their names were Mr and Mrs Janis Pankelis and I do remember that we visited our other friends, Keith and Ada Boys from Devonport, when I was 5 years old. I still remember the trip on The Princess of Tasmania as we sailed across Bass Strait to visit them. It was a grand adventure for me and my brother. The best part was the fireworks that we all watched together under the huge gum trees on their property to celebrate Guy Fawkes Night. Back in Geelong, we spent time with our friends the Koroshazi family and also celebrated more fireworks with them. Later on in that year we had Guy Fawkes Night again in November in South Australia. Three times in one year! What kid would ever forget that!

My school years were happy ones as I enjoyed learning and I did well at primary school. Then in high school I felt more out of my league as there were so many more students to compete with. My parents were unable to help me with my homework if I had any questions and I was way too shy to ask my teachers.

I found myself getting more and more introverted as I found it difficult to fit in and make friends. My confidence and self esteem dropped even further as I reached my teens and found myself being bullied by a couple of well-endowed girls. I’d already found problems with myself, I surely didn’t need any one pointing out any more of my faults! In many classes I was too embarrassed to ask for help so I just plodded along and did my best. I passed my subjects and got up to do matriculation and then failed as a result of my insecurities and the fact that one of my teachers didn’t like me or any of my work. I put it down to my ethnic background as he seemed to like everyone else but me! They got the A’s while I only got C’s; no matter what I’d written. Thank god I decided to return to redo my matriculation as we had a new teacher for that subject and I got A’s easily.

So I passed matriculation and got into University and though I never completed my Bachelor of Arts degree due to illness, I am proud to say that my daughter has just passed her university studies and got her Bachelor of Animal Science. I may have been made in Hungary but I was born an Australian and I’m proud to be counted as one too! Though my early years left a little to be desired I am glad to be an Aussie through and through! This is my country and though I may have been called a Wog as well as many other things, it is to Australia that my heart belongs!  This is the Lucky Country! No wonder so many poor people overseas look at this land and see so much potential. We should all be proud to call Australia home! I am an Aussie and I am thankful for being able to get an education. I am grateful to be able to worship as I feel without prejudice and I am so happy to live in a wonderfully diverse community with people from many nations making up this Australian population.

In these last few years I have begun to write a book of my experiences and want to share these with today’s teens. Life goes on exactly as it did in my teens. There is still discrimination and teasing and even bullying going on and if we recall that old saying; "Sticks and stones will break my bones, but names will never hurt me!” How wrong can we be? Names do hurt! How we are treated as children does affect us! It does hurt to be teased and set apart from and by our peers, but if we persevere and be a friend to those in need, we can find that life is worth living! Each and every-one of us is a part of this great country, and no matter what we look like on the outside, we are all the same on the inside! We all have a living, beating heart and we all bleed the same coloured blood! If only we could all accept each other and love our neighbours as ourselves, we’d all be a much happier people.

I have found myself praying for all those affected in the many terrible disasters that have already occurred this year in 2011. My own family has been through a lot of terrible times in the last few years. When times were the worst and I couldn’t cope, I’d find myself going for a walk out in the fresh air and sunshine. Just being outside and reaching out to God made everything so much better. When I asked for help and understanding, it was given. I was led to find books and people who could help me in my time of need! This was such a wonderful experience! I found myself crying out to the Lord because I felt so weak and useless and afterward the peace filled my heart! Please; where-ever you are join with me in prayer and find peace too!