Köszönöm, jól!

I was born in Kikinda in 1962. I attended primary school in Coka and secondary school in Senta, and in 1986, I graduated from the Department of Hungarian Language and Literature at the Faculty of Philosophy in Novi Sad. After a period as a freelance contributor, I spent ten years working at Radio Novi Sad from 1985. The best years were when I edited the youth program, Szombati találka (Saturday Meeting). From 1991 until its cessation, I was an external contributor to the weekly newspaper Napló. My writings – which I would simply call anti-war – appeared in the volumes Téves csatatéren I. (On the Wrong Battlefield I), Téves csatatéren II. (On the Wrong Battlefield II), and Menni vagy maradni (To Go or to Stay). Since 1996, I have been the editor-in-chief of Képes Ifjúság.

In light of the driest facts, this would be me: Lívia Tóth. The selected excerpts are about me, about some of my years, they show me – a little raw and personal. Deliberately so, as I tried to compile it in such a way that everything impersonal and purely political was left out. However, what cannot be entirely missing is the sediment of the past years.

The form is a diary because I wanted something more intimate. And a pseudo-diary, because the complete writings mostly appeared as editorials in Napló, and later in Képes Ifjúság.

The date of the first excerpt is October 6, 1993, and the last is June 30, 1999. Just over five years, if you like: only half a decade. Not a long time – I could say, if it were about another period of my life. But I was neck-deep in this one. Because it can be different: slowly, walking past everything. Another characteristic of the compilation is that initially I was extremely confident, I believed in and professed standing firm, in remaining – what meaningless phrases – and although I did not judge, I asserted with conviction that I had acted correctly. Then my arrogance slowly began to wear off, my armor to crack (or was it broken?), and today I regret my choice, or at least that I did not learn to sell myself.

But what could be the answer to the question of how I am?

I'm fine, thank you!

Lívia TÓTH