At the traditional 13th “Meeting of the Generations” at the Military Academy “G. S. Rakovski”, our student Ivan Garkov from 11th grade was invited personally by Prof. Dimitar Nedyalkov to give a speech in memory of one of the forgotten pioneer of Bulgarian aviation – Lieutenant Vladimir Alexandrov Balan.
Ivan moved the audience by sharing more about Balan’s life and how his story can be inspirational and motivating for the younger generations:
“A lesson for everyone – and for me as a young man, is that his initial reception (in Germany) of disbelief did not discourage him, but made him ambitious to prove himself and the result is clear – he not only became one of the most experienced drivers, but soon the student becomes the teacher.”
Ivan was invited together with two of his classmates – Danail Hinkov and Alexander Zdravkov, and the event was attended by selected professionals and important people from the field of aviation. Prof. Dimitar Nedyalkov personally gave Ivan the book “With the Wings of the Enemy”, which tells the story of abandoned and accidentally found aviation equipment after the two world wars.
We want to share the end of his speech and we’re proud to have the opportunity to support such intelligent and curious students:
“The most important thing I took from this ‘flying memory’ of Vladimir Balan is that if one wants hard enough to achieve one’s dreams, nothing is impossible in this world. We must know what we want, not give up, but fight until the end to reach even higher heights. We must meet all challenges with open arms and determination because they are windows to new opportunities. As the saying goes, the finest diamonds are born under pressure. It’s better to take advantage of the moment than to regret not having done it. I’m still discovering myself, but people like Balan inspire me to keep climbing the ladder of success and believe in the hope of tomorrow.”
More information about the event can be found here:
Среща на поколенията на военната авиация във Военна академия
