NOT TOMORROW. TODAY.

November 10 — World Youth Day

We are the ones who refuse to accept impossibility as the final answer.

When we look at a map, we see not borders, but roads yet to travel.

Not tomorrow. Today.

Wind in our pockets. Unanswered questions in our minds. Dreams in our hearts that have yet to find their names.

To keep moving. Sometimes with confidence, sometimes by feel. Sometimes without knowing where the road will lead, yet knowing that standing still is no longer an option.

November 10, 1945. London. A world in the aftermath of war.

Amid pain and devastation, hope was born: young people from different countries could unite for peace, freedom, solidarity and human dignity.

Decades have passed. Cities, nations and technologies have changed. The world has changed.

Yet one fundamental question remains: can we live without fear of one another?

We are not perfect. We make mistakes. We have doubts. Sometimes we lose our way. Sometimes we begin again.

But we have the right to try, to question, to seek, to create, to change.

There is no ready-made map. But there is a compass.

In our pockets — keys to doors not yet opened and tickets to the unknown. In our minds — cities that have yet to exist.

But youth is not defined by technology. Not by internet speed. Not by the number of achievements. It is something else entirely.

To pause for another human being. To listen to someone who thinks differently. To admit our mistakes. To extend a helping hand. Never to turn away from someone else's suffering.

Different. Hundreds of languages. Different cultures, traditions and beliefs.

Arguments. Disagreements. Different ways of seeing the world.

And yet, we remain capable of seeing the human being in one another.

Because differences are no reason for hostility.

True solidarity does not require us to be alike. It begins with learning to respect one another.

To dream of a world without fear, of skies free from gunfire, of warmth in every home, of knowledge accessible to all, of opportunities that do not depend on where we are born.

To dream of a world where human dignity is not something reserved for the privileged.

Not simply to take our place in the old world, but to help make it more humane.

Youth is not a number in a passport.

It is the ability to see, among the ruins, a place where a new home can rise; in the unknown, the promise of discovery; and in another's pain, a reason to pause and reach out.

Age counts the years we have lived. Youth is measured by how fiercely life still burns within us.

But dreams alone do not change the world. Everything begins with a first step.

With a book opened at the right moment. With a conversation long avoided. With an idea that only a few believe in. With a hand extended to a stranger.

With an act that may go unnoticed, but changes someone's life.

November 10. May this date remind us that generations must never be divided by walls of misunderstanding.

Every era has its challenges. Every generation has its questions. Yet the pursuit of peace, justice, freedom and human dignity knows no age.

Borders should remain lines on maps, never walls between human hearts.

To look at the impossible and ask: “Why not?”

To look at the bleak November and see the spring still waiting to arrive.

A promise beneath the sky: “There will be light here.”

Don't wait for your moment. It has already arrived.

Not perfection, but progress. Not sameness, but solidarity. Not grand promises, but action. Not indifference, but responsibility.

And if one day our efforts seem too small in the face of a vast world, remember the tree.

Once, someone planted it, never knowing who might one day find shelter beneath its branches.

That person never saw all the fruits of their labour. But did that make the effort any less worthwhile?

Perhaps this is how a meaningful future is built: not through grand promises, but through actions whose significance may only become clear years later.

And now, it's your turn. Don't wait for the world to change. Start with what you can change today.

Kindle a light. Reach out a hand. Protect life. Nurture a dream. Create what does not yet exist.

NOT TOMORROW.

TODAY.

We do not need to be labelled the future to justify our place in the present.

We are already here. Already taking action. Already changing the world.

May future generations one day see not only what we dreamed of, but also what we managed to achieve.

May they see that we did not turn away from another's suffering, did not allow fear to overcome hope, and never forgot what matters most: that we must never lose our humanity.

Because youth is not something that simply fades with age.

It is the strength of the human spirit that will never let the world stand still.

And I am sixty-six. Yet I am still part of this “we”.

TO BURN, NOT TO SMOULDER.