Hello, my name is Ioana Literat and, together with Sarah Calvert, I will be continuing the Modern Story project at the C. Ramchand Girls High School in Hyderabad, and A.P. Boys Residential School in Nalgonda from June to August. I am really excited to be part of this wonderful project, as well as extremely thankful for being trusted with furthering this initiative, and I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself briefly before I leave Uruguay, where I am currently spending my semester abroad, and embark on my Indian journey.

So let me tell you my own modern story. A modern story in which the messengers are not doves but internet cables, and Prince Charming fights for his love not with a mighty sword but with an air mile account. A modern story where you might need a visa to pass from kingdom to kingdom, but where it’s okay to talk to strangers while going to your grandma’s house. A modern story that is just beginning, or perhaps keeps beginning with every stranger you talk to or every forest you cross.

I was born and raised in Romania, in a beautiful city called Timisoara, where I attended a bilingual English-Romanian school with teachers who used “oh gosh” a lot, pupils whose dreams took place at Stonehenge, and an impressive number of portraits of Shakespeare per square meter. As the representative of my school in the Municipal Youth Council, I became very involved in issues concerning social change, and the improvement of opportunities for young people in my country. This is when I found my voice, or rather, realized that I had a voice which was mine to use, and therefore it was then that I became the narrator of my own story. I also got a taste of other kingdoms, traveling extensively around Europe and participating in international projects and events at the European Parliament and the Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

And when I was given the opportunity to represent Romania at the United World College in Canada, my parents – the sweetest and most selfless king and queen that ever lived – let me go to the ball, and without a chaperone and without having to come home at midnight. So for the next two years, I studied the International Baccalaureate curriculum together with 200 young people from 100 different countries, and engaged in activities that combined academics, social activism and intercultural learning to fulfill the school’s goal of fostering international understanding starting from the individual. And before I knew it, when I left this amazing international community to continue my education at Middlebury College, I had become a woman, and a global citizen, and an observer – and my accent, after being surrounded by 100 completely different types of English accents, was much worse than when I was auditioning for Lady Macbeth back in eighth grade.

At Middlebury, I discovered my interest in film, which, combined with my passion for creative writing and fiction, led me to focus on a career in screenwriting, majoring in Film and Media Studies and minoring in Political Science. Staying true to my interest in human rights and global affairs, I hope to produce works that will be able to convey socially significant messages in a culturally relevant and creative form – something that, although perhaps in a different way, I believe The Modern Story project is all about.

And like any little girl that treaded into any woods in any story, I also hope to return home one day and give back to my parents and to Romania everything that they have given to me. I miss people, I miss places, I miss smells and flavors and customs, but the moment I won’t miss anything, I know I’ll miss this feeling… of missing. And at the end of my Indian story, perhaps I won’t have found my way home, and perhaps my carriage will still be a pumpkin, but the realization of enabling these young people to tell their own stories and find their own voices is the most genuine and fulfilling happy ending I can hope for.