I’ll never forget that warm June night in 1991 when me and my sister stood at the Trg republike square and looked forward to new times. I don’t know to the day what drove me to be there because I usually go out of my way to avoid crowds and everything that goes with them. Something else had to be in the air, obviously. Something powerful. I felt an energy I haven’t felt since.

Today, I can hardly believe it even happened. And I was lucky to experience it first hand and to live the last twenty years in the most productive period of life. Our country should be an opportunity to us all and it is a right we should never waive. Sometimes I fear it seems as if it was allowed to play with it but the fact that we came to stand on our own feet as a nation cannot be gambled away. It is too powerful. We can come together as a nation when the need truly arises – perhaps such time will come again.

Not much has remained of the connection, pride and enthusiasm from two decades ago and I often miss it but I remain an optimist. I like living in my country. I think it is beautiful and although I like nothing better than to travel and wander around the world, I think I could only really live here, where I was born.