In Their Words: What the Future Holds

This is from the same woman as in the previous post. I asked her what she thinks her life—and her country—will be like in ten years.

I don’t know. For some reason, during Soviet times, I somehow had faith in tomorrow. It was somehow reliable: tomorrow would be just the same as today. I don’t have faith in tomorrow anymore. What’s going to happen tomorrow? What if prices jump? Do I need an education or don’t I? A lot of people don’t even want an education now. They just want to make money as quickly as they can. Even in our educational system, there are professors who give good grades for a price. What kind of professionals are going to come out of that? Who’s going to be our doctors? Sure, with teachers and some other professions you can at least give them some on-the-job training, but doctors…how can you hire those who got their degrees for money? How can you put a person like that at an operating table? I think that if our education system doesn’t change, as far as the future goes, I can’t even imagine. And then the economy, if our president and legislators can’t figure it out, then that’s also…I just don’t really have faith in tomorrow. I’ll probably just keep teaching. I still have ten years until retirement, and I have four kids. If I’m still living and healthy I’ll probably just keep teaching. The kids will finish school and I kind of hope, somewhere in the bottom of my heart, that they’ll emigrate and work somewhere else. It’s just not possible to make a good living here. But everyone wants to live well. To stand on their own two feet. I just don’t think it’s possible here. I hope [my son]
emigrates somewhere and finds work. My [oldest] daughter…I’d like her to be able to find a good marriage, for her to also live well, and work. I can’t think about ten years from now. I don’t even know what’s going to happen tomorrow. That’s the times we live in.