Dear Marianna, my beloved sister! Finally, I made up my mind to write you a letter, it’s been three weeks since I moved to Budapest and started university. The village girl has become a city lady, as you’d say. I was longing to leave the little village where even the cock crow annoyed me… today, I miss that too. Here, I wake up to the noise of buzzing buses each and every morning, now you must be laughing at me, as I laughed at you when you chose simple life. I have a confession to make: I can’t even turn on the gas without you, and I’m starting to value what I had taken for granted before. You run the house, cook, wash, clean, raise your daughter and take care of mother. I’m proud of you, that you are so capable, because you’ve known since the age of 18 what it is like to be a mother and a wife, although you were hardly a grown-up yourself, and you do all this selflessly, for our family. And why? The answer is simple: because this is what makes you happy: home, fam...

There are many difficult situations in life, and I learned at an early age that humour can help a lot. My story dates back to my childhood, I was a shy, reserved, quiet little girl. I grew up in Budapest but most members of my family live in Hodász, therefore I spent a lot of time there. I was bilingual as a kid, I spoke both Romani and Hungarian fluently. My mother taught me to be proud of my Roma heritage. Unfortunately, this does not mean that I have not faced discrimination because of my ethnic background. Often security guards followed us while we were shopping, hence I learned, if I liked something in the shop, I should not touch it but look at it instead. I remember when I was in kindergarten and I was playing around the climbing frame after lunch. Suddenly one of my mates, a ginger-haired, freckled little boy came up to me and said that Gypsies are not allowed to play at the climbing frame. I was frightened and I did not play there that day. My mom worked n...