You should always start by asking "WHY"

When you first read it, it sounds like the title of a bestseller, but in fact, it is the story of a teenager who takes the next step and goes beyond the limits, who breaks down barriers and seeks every day to become the best version of himself.

Donildo is studying in the third year of an upper secondary school in the city of Korça and is very active in the youth activities organized at his school and in the city, too.

The leading teacher of the youth club at his school has spotted him since the beginning as a special, well-mannered, simple, humble teenager who learns, discovers, researches, and strives without stopping.

He has a passion for engaging in initiatives that bring about community development and is very interested in the daily development of the individual, the indepth analysis of the human being and the study of matter and spirituality.

Recently, Donildo participated in the project organized by World Vision "Library Detectives". He chose a very difficult work to dramatize, the "The Apology of Socrates". He told his peers about values and anti-values or overturning the concepts of the times we live in.

We can all develop "Socrates" within ourselves, by meditating, reflecting, questioning the lies that are told to us as true and not taking for granted everything we hear.

Today, on the National Youth Day, we, together with Dolindo, choose to present the following challenge and call:

"My duty is to show you that virtues cannot be bought with money, but money and human kindness are gained by having virtues. If you think that what I said to you is wrong and it can be harmful to young people, then I can call myself guilty. "But, if one of you is coming out and saying that you have not taught us such a thing, then he/she is lying."

He says that until the sixth grade he was quite disobedient and naughty and he used to spend more time in the school directorate than in the classroom—until something started to change.

This is how Donildo begins the story by telling us that the journey of inner change is not easy but it is worth it.

"When I was in the sixth grade, my family decided to immigrate to Turkey and so I suddenly found myself in Istanbul not knowing anything about what the future would hold for me. The neighbourhood where we used to live was lovely, I do not deny it, but I could never make any friends. When the other children were at school, I had to attend a foreign language course and I was never fully assimilated to the circumstances and lifestyle in this country. Nevertheless, an internal process of concern began for me. I thought to myself, ‘What am I missing? Why not going to school like all my peers? What am I missing?’”, he asked.

In the meantime, he says that living there was not what his parents imagined and decided to return to Albania after a year.

 “Returning was even more difficult than emigration. I found another environment, other kind of people. In Turkey, people were more polite, whereas here, as I went out the door I heard noises, loud shouts, stern looks. I decided not to remain hostage to reality but to look deep inside myself for a motive, for a higher calling. I am a grateful, simple person who loves and enjoys beauty and ethics. I am not talkative and I do not prejudice people because I do not want to hurt someone, since I know what it is like when you are hurt,” he says.

“When I used to be noisy and naughty, it was hurtful for me to hear the offences of my teachers and my parents’ comments. They used to say me: ‘Oh my Goodness! What type of person are you becoming? When are you going to change your mindset?’”

Without being too afraid, he says that those who spoke to him were right, but no matter how hard he tried, he ended up in trouble and dropping out of school.

He says that this situation happened until the moment when the 'two worlds collided'; the lesson he learned when he and his family were away from Albania that made him reflect and express that the best among us is the one who knows how to reflect and seek the purpose of life making a summary, a comparison of "where I am" and "where I want to be".

While conversation with Dolindo comes naturally, it seems as if you are moving to a parallel universe, where there is no evil, where there is only good, beautiful, peace, happiness, prosperity, and this is not the effect of the holidays, believe me. It is the effect of communicating with a teenager who has decided to be a promoter of community change.

Some express the desire for change through work, sensational actions, slogans, advocacy, while for Dolindo, change can come even more peacefully.

"Change comes with knowledge," he says. “I have always been attracted by books and historical facts, but also by the lifestyles of communities and people in different countries, for example in France and England in different time periods. There I read and understood more about the ways of behaving, about etiquette, ethics, morality, socially acceptable and unacceptable norms and I have always been a fan of their application. "

Thus, according to Donildo, there is always a door of knowledge for those who want to develop themselves, to be self-effective, to learn more, to become better. He has a call for all young people who still have their inner voice alive, despite being somewhere deep and overwhelmed by many material things: "Start with why."

When I asked him to explain a little more he does.

"When I decided to change, I took concrete steps and set a clear goal. I realized that in order to start taking myself seriously and letting others know that I had changed course, I had to be part of the structures where my voice is heard,” says Donildo.

“At first, I sat at the desk of the best student in the class to learn from his approach. I significantly improved my results in the seventh grade. In the eighth grade, I was elected as the class senator and in the ninth grade, as the President. I went to the upper secondary school with the same philosophy and I ended up being the president of the school," he says.

Donildo smiles with simplicity and not with pride because he has learned to be thankful and humble for successes. He attributes these to God and to himself, to the daily devotion and investment he has made in himself.

"I have not spent much time with my parents and I continue not to spend much time as they deal with a small farm that we own on the outskirts of the city, which requires so much effort and physical time that we find it impossible to stay long with each other. Books accompany me all the time," he says.

It seems that even those few hours that they share with each other, they focus on improving themselves, little by little every day.

"We are all a little confused these days, especially with the pandemic and misinformation; "The important thing is not to feed the confusion, but to focus on our goal," Donildo says. When I asked him what message he wants to transmit in order to encourage young people who will read his story, he thinks a little and brings us these three tips:

First: To find happiness in the little things, in the smile of parents, in the fir lights, in the success of friends.

Second: To live in faith.

Third: At the end of the day, success or failure is a matter of capacity, not strength. More knowledgeable, less strong.

As for Donildo, he does not know what will happen to him in 10 years. Perhaps, he will become a doctor, an actor, or a philosopher, but one thing he knows for sure: the love for community development and the positive change of reality will always accompany him.

He has already found the niche—his focus.

Donildo is one of the young people with whom World Vision works in Albania.