YouTube link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZdeHOCK5u0

You have probably seen this short handwritten note from Nika Shakarami’s childhood. Its words involuntarily call to mind the speech attributed to William Wallace addressing the people of Scotland as they fled from the struggle for their freedom. The words are rendered here in this sense:

What will you do without freedom?
If you run from the struggle for freedom, you may continue your life for a little longer and perhaps, if you are fortunate, even reach old age.
But when one day you sit upon your deathbed waiting for your end, will you not think: if only I could return to today, perhaps I could change the outcome of this struggle?
Would you not be willing to give all the days of your life from today until that final moment in exchange for reclaiming this very moment of struggle—the moment in which you might perhaps bring about a change in the world?

These are words that I know had touched Nika’s courageous heart from her childhood. With all my being, I too hope that, like this passionate, young spirit in love with freedom, until the final moment of my life in this world I will never forget my answer to this question.

Aydin Areta