Once upon a time there was a little girl called Europe. She was a beautiful girl and she was very smart. No one could imagine what she would achieve in the future. No one could expect how gorgeous she would appear. She had five sisters. Asia was the biggest one with eyes wide open. The second sister named America was the most popular with the crowds. Her favourite word ‘OK’ was famous all over the world. The third one called Africa was unpredictable and mysterious like nobody. Friends used to call her ‘Wild’. Australia, the fourth sister, was physically far away from the rest of siblings. Nevertheless, her heart was always very close to them in every possible way. The last one Antarctica was totally different from the sisters. She was the coldest one. She covered emotions behind a thick skin which she had developed after personal disaster. Despite being withdrawn, she loved her sisters so much.

            Europe had a constant impression of being the last one, the worst one. She stayed in the shadow of older and self-confident sisters. That shy girl just wanted to be equal to Asia, America, Africa, Australia and Antarctica. She needed to be like them. She did not want to dance to their tune. Sisters had never let Europe feel worthless but she was feeling a lack of happiness at heart. Although she was attached to Asia and close to Africa, a desire of being ‘someone’ was too strong to ease her pain. Love the sisters gave her every day was not enough.

            One day, her life turned upside-down. Finally she fell in love: truly, madly, deeply. Suddenly, Europe became a shiny happy woman. Life was no longer meaningless to her. The girl who had had a lot of complexes about her personality disappeared in a second. Shortly she married the man who had happened to be the guiding star of her existence. They both lived happily. After all, Europe realized that she could be more than she had thought.

            She was not huge with her area of 3,930,000 million square meters but ultimately she was feeling as powerful as older sisters. The wonderful husband was her air, family and everything she had been searching for. Both spouses were lucky to have many children, 50 countries which spoke over 50 languages. The idyll did not last for a long time. Unfortunately, Europe’s descendants started to fight, compete and conquer more then they needed. All rules vanished and gone. Almost everyone forgot they had been a family. Europe was completely broken and shattered. Iron curtain shared her body and sorrow extended her veins. She was suffering many new diseases, such as war, argument, racism, fascism, humiliation, maltreatment, environmental degradation. The sun was covered by clouds of tears. Smile turned into a terrifying grimace of distress.

Thankfully, her sisters did not leave her alone with horrific matters. She could count on her husband as well. They did not let her down. She was weak but managed to get up and stand up on feet. Europe did her best to find a reasonable solution to make her descendants up. She had cried for their sins many nights. As a result, she established a kind of union between children. Later it was called ‘European Union’ from the name of its founder, of course.

The countries promised to their mother being united, equal and friendly with each other forever. So, they stopped all conflicts and started to socialize. European Union helped them to go back to good old times. A brother could talk to a sister and the sister was able to talk to the brother. Slowly almost all brothers and sisters become united. They looked into sibling’s eyes, confessed sins and apologized. Mother Europe could breathe again but still not all her children were united.

‘Hope dies last’ that is what Europe is saying now. She is permanently hoping one day all her lovely 50 children will be tied with a ribbon of love, friendship and tolerance. Mother Europe deserves it. It is possible because impossible is nothing as someone claims. She is an optimist. We must be optimists. That is the way that fairy tale will end. Maybe they, we (Europeans) already have been equal and united…  Have we? Without a shadow of a doubt, Europe is more than you (we) think. It is us and it is up to us, proud Europeans.