Plus tri

Srećni ljudi imaju mnogo prijatelja širom sveta. A Jelena je posebna upravo zato što pripada tom svetu. Iako nosi ime i prezime koji je vezuju za jedan narod, po kulturi i vaspitanju pripada drugom, a po obrazovanju, radu i načinu života nesumnjivo je kosmopolita.

Za razliku od mnogih kojima je cilj samo da završe školu i time zaokruže svoje ambicije, Jelena je oduvek želela više. Danas znam koliko je malo onih koji imaju dovoljno hrabrosti da sebi iznova postavljaju nove zadatke, da menjaju svoj životni put i da u tim promenama ne traže izgovore, već smisao. Jelena je tu hrabrost pokazala još onda kada je došla u veliki grad i završila farmaciju. Ali ne samo formalno, ne reda radi — ona farmaciju zaista zna. Kao profesor Farmaceutskog fakulteta, to mogu da kažem sa punim uverenjem.

Posle uspešnog rada u apotekama velikog grada, onda kada je već mogla da se prepusti sigurnosti rutine i miru poznatog puta, odlučila je da napravi iskorak. Umesto da ostane tamo gde je već bila sigurna, potvrđena i svoja, izabrala je promenu i prešla u farmaceutsku industriju.

Većina ljudi bi u takvoj situaciji mislila samo na to kako da savlada novi posao i sačuva unutrašnji mir. Jelena je, međutim, i tada poželela više. Gotovo istovremeno upisala je master studije iz kliničke farmacije, kao da je i sama osećala da je svaki novi korak za nju tek početak nekog sledećeg. Firma u kojoj danas radi možda još nije do kraja svesna svih njenih kvaliteta, ali nema sumnje da će ih vreme vrlo brzo pokazati.

Novi posao zahtevao je i nešto sasvim praktično, ali nimalo beznačajno — da savlada vožnju, nešto što je dugo odlagala. I eto danas Jelene u jednoj sasvim novoj životnoj slici: na novom poslu, na master studijama i za volanom, kao novopečeni vozač. U svemu tome ima nečeg lepog i simboličnog: kao da joj je život, korak po korak, otvarao nova vrata, a ona im je prilazila sa tihom hrabrošću i verom.

Zato verujem da je ovo tek početak jednog novog i važnog poglavlja. Jer ljudi koji pred sebe stavljaju nove izazove ne ostaju na istom mestu. Oni rastu, menjaju se, osvajaju nove prostore u sebi i oko sebe. Jelena je upravo takva osoba.

Priča o Jeleni najbolja je potvrda da su Božiji planovi sa ljudima stalna kretnja, rast i učenje. A možda i izvesna tajna, nalik onoj iz priče njenog velikog zemljaka Ive Andrića — Jelena, žena koje nema.

♥

Perhaps the truly fortunate are those whose friendships reach across the world. And Jelena is special because she herself seems to belong to such a world. Though her name firmly anchors her to one people, by culture and upbringing she belongs to another, while by education, spirit, and the shape of her life she belongs, unmistakably, to the wide and borderless world.

Unlike so many who seek only to finish their schooling and rest within the safety of what has been achieved, Jelena has always longed for something beyond the expected. With time, one learns how rare such souls are — those who have the courage to place new trials before themselves, to leave behind what is known, and to search within change not for fear, but for meaning. She showed that courage when she came to the great city and completed her studies in pharmacy. Yet she did not do so merely to earn a diploma, nor simply to fulfill a duty. She came to know her profession deeply, seriously, and with devotion. As a professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy, I can say this with certainty and with pride.

After successful years of work in the pharmacies of a great city, at the very moment when life might so easily have settled into the calm certainty of routine, Jelena chose otherwise. She stepped away from the comfort of the familiar and entered a new world — the world of the pharmaceutical industry — as if answering a quiet inner call that would not let her remain still.

Most people, when faced with such a turning point, would be consumed by the effort of adapting, by the strain of beginnings, by the need simply to endure. But Jelena was not content merely to endure. Almost in the same breath, she enrolled in a master’s program in clinical pharmacy, as though she knew, instinctively, that every new step in life is only the threshold of another. The company where she now works may not yet fully see the measure of all she carries within her, but time has its own way of revealing what is true.

And as if all this were not enough, this new path asked of her something practical, ordinary, and yet deeply symbolic: she had to learn to drive, something she had long postponed. And so today, we see Jelena in a new light — in a new profession, in advanced study, and behind the wheel, a newly licensed driver. There is something quietly beautiful in that image. It is as if life itself had been opening one door after another before her, and she, with gentle determination, had found the strength to walk through each one.

That is why I believe this is not a conclusion, but a beginning. For those who continue to place new challenges before themselves do not remain unchanged. They grow. They deepen. They discover new landscapes within their own hearts and beyond them in the world. Jelena is one of those rare people whose life reminds us that becoming is more important than arrival.

Her story may be the clearest sign that God’s plans for human beings are written in movement, in growth, in learning, and in those unseen turns by which one life is quietly transformed. Or perhaps they are also woven with a measure of mystery, like the one that lives in the story of her great countryman, Ivo Andrić — Jelena, the Woman Who Is Not There.