Do you know Elio?

“What’s your name?”

“Erjon.”

A pause.
A confused look.

“Elio,” he says.
It’s easier
in a country
where his real name
sounds strange.

He arrived there when he was young.

A new language.
A new way of speaking.
A new way of living.

And new eyes
looking at him
as someone who didn’t belong.

People noticed the accent first.
Then the name.
Then the surname.

Sometimes they laughed.
Sometimes they joked.
Sometimes they just looked at him
as if he were different.

At the beginning
it hurt.

He felt ashamed of speaking.
Ashamed of being different.

But time passes.

And step by step
he stayed.

He improved the language.
He spoke better.
He understood more.

And something changed.

Not the accent.
Not the name.
Not where he came from.

Him.

One day he understood something simple:

Being different
is not a weakness.

It means you had the courage
to leave a place,
to start again,
to build yourself
far from home.

And yes,
sometimes the road is hard.

But it is also true
that this country
gave him something too.

A place to grow.
A place to learn.
A place to become
who he is today.

If you are an “Elio” too,
believe me,
you are doing better than you think.

— Fuerpa Slow Journal