I took the roundabout way to graduating high school, college through 3 countries, languages

By John Toth

The Bulletin

When I was running around in the school yard in the third or fourth grade, I fully expected to graduate from high school in Budapest, Hungary, and then either go to college or learn a trade.

Things turned out a little differently, but I have to say for the better. I was about to finish fourth grade in Budapest when my mother took me on a two-week spring break to Vienna, Austria, which turned into an escape from a Soviet bloc country to the West. That changed everything.

I finished fourth grade in Austria and then went into fifth grade for a while, but we received political asylum in the United States, so I landed in New York City, where I started this new school and language business all over again.

This was not the straight line to high school graduation that I had in mind. But the changes in country and languages gave me an education outside of the classroom that I would not have gotten by staying in Budapest.

I probably never would have learned English. The mandatory language classes in Budapest started at fifth grade, and the choices were, Russian, Russian or Russian.

Since Russia occupied Hungary at the time, they decided that all students should learn to speak Russian. There were kids my age who, like  myself,  really did not want to learn Russian.

Several of us talked about it in the fourth grade and dreaded it, especially after we saw the Russian alphabet. That was not on my bucket list, but there was also no way around it. If we would have been given a choice of studying German, Russian or English, I doubt that any of my friends would have chosen Russian.

I could be wrong. One of my friend’s dad was pretty high up in the Communist Party. He may have had to choose it. But that’s all.

He was a very good student and a decent soccer player. We got along great, and one day he invited me to go play at his apartment, which was like a palace compared to our room where my parents and I lived. I never asked him to come play in my room.

After we left, I missed playing with him, but I made new friends and learned new languages. I also learned a lot about childrens’ behavior when they saw a new kid in the class. The same kids who totally ignored me when I showed up, were my best friends when I left. I think they were shy and awkward at first, not dismissive.

By my eighth-grade graduation, I was fluent in German and English and ready to have a great summer and start high school just a subway ride away.

I went to high school in the Bronx, where I was in a program that was supposed to prepare me for a college engineering major. That is, until I changed my mind in the third year of college, and I decided to aim for a degree in communications.

That was another twist I did not anticipate, but it happened. I joined the college paper and was spending more time there than in engineering classes. I changed my major late in the game, but a very imaginative college counselor made it possible on paper by turning all the calculus and engineering classes I took into electives. I was now on my way to a career in writing. It was my primary choice from the start; I just didn’t realize it.

My mother attended my high-school graduation, along with a Hungarian friend who lived on our floor. The ceremony was the usual. I waited a long time before they got to the T’s. Then it was over, and I went to my summer job in New Hampshire.

I never attended my college graduation because I found a reporting job in Bay City, Texas. I was working as a reporter while my fellow students were graduating. I thought that was a fair exchange, since entry level journalism jobs back in those days were few and far in-between. I went back a few years later to pick up my degree.

Whichever way you got to this point, graduates, congratulations. Whatever you do from now on, grab opportunities that come your way and make the best of them.

Work hard but also have a good time. It has worked for me ever since I crossed the border into Austria in 1966. The sky’s the limit.