In the news - Not My Turn to Die: Memoirs of a Broken Childhood in Bosnia

Alum Acknowledges CSB/SJU Teachers

By Savo Heleta

September 20, 2007

In the updated and expanded edition of “The World is Flat,” Thomas Friedman writes about a question he was asked in St. Paul, Minn. by a ninth-grader: “If it is that important to learn how to learn, how do you learn how to learn?”

Friedman told the boy to make a list of his favorite teachers. Then go out, and take their courses, no matter what subject they were teaching.

“When I think back on my favorite teachers,” Friedman said, “I don’t remember the specifics of what they taught me, but I sure remember being excited about learning it.

What has stayed with me are not the facts they imparted, but the excitement about learning they inspired.

To learn how to learn, you have to love learning, or at least enjoy it!”

I started high school in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the fall of 1995, when the war was still ravaging my country.

I found the school in a complete mess. My professors were underpaid, and many didn’t care about the quality of education they provided.

My male teachers often had to leave to fight in the war, so we missed weeks of classes. Some of the teachers would often beat students.

My English language teacher soon realized that she could make way more money if she worked as a translator for the United Nations forces. She left us.

From then on we had no English classes. Once a semester, the school hired someone for a day to come and give us passing grades, making our “progress” look official.

I somehow finished high school having missed half of my classes. I missed some because my teachers weren’t there and some because I saw no point in attending an unorganized educational institution. And I hated school.

Today if someone asked my high school teachers about me, most of them would probably say I was a problematic student, never studied and never did my homework. They would probably say that they did everything they could to inspire me, but I just wasn’t getting it.

Events that followed and my enormous luck brought me to St. John’s and St. Ben’s in the fall of 2002.

I arrived barely able to speak, write or read English. But here I was, surrounded by professors who always wanted to go the extra mile to help and inspire me.

With their help I was able to learn English. It wasn’t easy, especially during my first two semesters.

I recall countless sleepless nights, working on my homework or reading books with a dictionary in my hand. Often, I felt like my head would explode, but I never thought about giving up.

I loved school now. I wanted to make up for all those lost years. At CSB/SJU, I found motivation and support, people who believed in me and cared about my future.

I found professors who welcomed and respected my opinions, even when they were contrary to their own, and who helped me to expand my horizons.

A few of my professors and fellow students inspired me to think big, so big that they persuaded me to try and write a book in English about my wartime experience in Bosnia.

I began writing in July 2005. After two years of writing, rewriting, editing, and more editing, I found a literary agent.

It took her a few months to find a publisher for my memoir. “Not My Turn to Die: Memoirs of a Broken Childhood in Bosnia” will be published in the United States by AMACOM, New York, in March 2008.

This may sound like self-promotion, but I feel that you should be the first to find out about this.

Without the help I received at CSB/SJU, none of this would have ever happened.

You can agree or disagree with Thomas Friedman about outsourcing or America’s competitive position in the world compared to India and China, but he is definitely right about the teachers who can inspire us to love learning and do things we never thought we could possibly do.

They somehow got me to enjoy and love learning. And, at CSB/SJU, they are everywhere around you!