SLOVENIA'S 5 CORE VALUES

The sun was shining as if trying to impress, the birds were chirping like a radio chorus, and Marjana was flying around the apartment like a butterfly at dawn.

She had carefully prepared her equipment: hiking boots - checked, rucksack - ready, sunglasses - fashionable and practical. She put a bottle of water on the table with all seriousness and the legendary snack: a sandwich, an apple and a few nuts that only the most organised hikers have.

And then ... The phone! "Marjana, come down, I'm already in the yard!" Melita shouted from the front yard, as if it were an action movie.

Marjana panicked, grabbed her rucksack, left the house and said goodbye to her sandwich, which was left alone and abandoned on the table. The water was weeping softly in the corner, but Marjana didn't look back.

When they arrived at the trailhead, she was all smiles. With mountaineering pride, she swung her rucksack on her shoulders and started walking. But after less than an hour, her mouth felt dry, as if she had eaten dry biscuits out of breath.

"Time for water!" she said to herself, and grabbed the zipper of her backpack... Only to find that there was nothing in it. Nothing at all. Like in her wallet after Christmas.

"Melita, I have no water and no food. I just took an empty rucksack and a lot of confidence," she confessed.

Melita rolled her eyes, laughed and said, "Fortunately, I'm thinking of you too," and handed her another bottle of water. "We'll share a snack."

Marjana defended herself with all her might: "No, no, no, I'm on a mountain diet - fresh air and shame will satiate me!"

But when it was time for lunch, Melita stubbornly unwrapped her sandwich and said, "No objections." And then - as if they had heard a command - the mountaineers began to gather around Marjana like knights around a queen. One offered her a chocolate, another an apple, another a banana.

"No, well, you don't really have to..." she grumbled, but in reality her heart was beating with warmth (and so was her stomach).

"Up here we are not competitors, we are a mountain family," said one of them. "Besides, if you have an empty rucksack, at least you can carry down our rubbish!"

And so Marjana arrived at the top, light as a feather; her rucksack empty, but her heart full. The only thing she promised herself towards the end of the journey was: 'Next time, I'll just put my snack in my rucksack. Even if Melita is already standing in my backyard."

                                                                                                Justina Strašek, 30. 4. 2025