We are never sure where our actions and decisions lead us. Everything we say, everything we do influences the final outcome. We always ask ourselves how we arrived at a certain moment in our lives. Although, sometimes, the answer is simple, there are also those situations where many questions and dilemmas accumulate.
November 1, 2024: The Annual School Day.
The annual school day, like any other. I was getting ready to head in to sing with the school choir, just as I had for the last four years on this special occasion. The usual dilemma: Should I take the train, rest and focus on the performance, or brace the crowded, thirty-minute bus ride? Perhaps I could wait and see if anyone was driving.
That single choice probably saved my life that day.
At 1:00 PM, an hour and a half after our choir performance, I finally turned on my phone. Twenty-five missed calls – from my mom and my best friend. My mom didn’t answer when I called back, but my best friend did. “I thought you were there,” she sobbed. “You wrote in the group that you would most likely take the train.” That was how I found out: The train station canopy in Novi Sad had collapsed.I rushed home to grab my documents and headed out to donate blood.
That evening, around 7:00 PM, my best friend and I stood near the station, watching the rescue efforts – seven hours later, they were still digging through the wreckage.By then, eleven victims had been confirmed. The count later rose to fifteen, and tragically, in March of this year, a sixteenth person succumbed to their injuries.
November and December 2024: At school.
As if in a vicious circle, we are all still in shock, unable to process anything. The tribute we paid in front of our high school turned violent. Students and teachers were attacked by local municipal officials and thugs from Sremski Karlovci – the police did not react. Students and teachers from our school were verbally and physically assaulted simply because they were paying tribute to the tragic victims.
January 21, 2025: The Start of the Second Semester.
Something else happened. Our professors stood with us, taking a stand against violence and against a regime that feeds on corruption. They suspended classes. This action restored my hope in people – that there are still those who will fight for justice, no matter how difficult it proves to be at the end of the day.
Although from that day forward I never returned to the high school desk, in the secondary school I dearly loved, I knew that this had happened so that we could have a tomorrow. I knew that our professors had done the right thing and taught us one of the most important lessons.
February 1, 2025: Three Bridges Protest in Novi Sad.
A few days before the blockade of the three bridges in Novi Sad, I decided that I would volunteer as a security guard at the protests. My first time participating as a security guard was precisely at the Three Bridges protest. Twelve hours later, I was no longer physically or mentally able to continue. That was truly a test of endurance, but I am very glad I had the opportunity to be a part of that protest.
February and March 2025: Solidarity actions.
Our professors are still suspending classes. We, the students, organized several humanitarian actions with them. All of this marked my fourth year of high school; we spent it together, helping each other.
March 13, 14, 15, 2025: Belgrade.
I walked with my peers and served as a high school security guard during the walk from Novi Sad to Belgrade for the 15for15 protest.
Movement from Novi Sad. One of the most beautiful moments during all these events was when we were taking a break in Sremski Karlovci – we all started singing “Za milion godina” (For a Million Years), surrounded by our friends who came to see us off and support us.
March 14, 2025. Belgrade. We arrived. 90 kilometers covered, one of the most difficult things I have ever experienced. Too many injuries, I wouldn’t even be able to list them all, but the moment I stood with my friends on Branko’s Bridge on March 14th, waiting to cross it, I will never forget. The moment we stepped onto Slavija Square, my friend and I just screamed: “We did it!”
March 15, 2025. Slavija. Although we were exhausted, we continued straight to Slavija so we could arrive for the 15 minutes of silence at 7 PM.
15 minutes of silence. 7:11 PM (19:11) – I was looking at the monitor on Slavija which displayed the time. At one moment, the monitor went out, and I lost the signal on my phone, which was the only one in our entire group. Ambulance and police sirens started. Blue flares – the sign of the thugs – lit up, and I heard a noise – it sounded like very loud buzzing. At that moment, I didn’t know it was a sonic weapon. Even after all this time, I still cannot fully process everything that happened then.
March 21, 2025
I was lying on the sofa, drinking coffee, and I turned on the news—the boy who was injured beneath the canopy had passed away after four months. The 16th victim. A few hours later, it was announced that there would be a gathering in front of the School of Economics at 11:52 PM for a 16-minute tribute.
I will never forget that sight—16 red balloons were released one after the other; after each balloon, a minute of silence, then the name of one victim. The girl, a friend of the deceased boy, collapsed in front of the school. Parents and students wept. The emotions were surreal.
April and May 2025: School Blockade.
We started the blockade of our school on April 23rd. Our professors ended the suspension of classes after four months due to pressure, reduced and missing salaries. After that, we took responsibility, because they had sacrificed too much for us. Those days passed through a fog. The thugs threatened us multiple times during the blockade. We had to sleep in shifts just in case someone broke in and attacked us. Many sleepless hours are behind me from that period.
May 3 – During the blockade, we marked another tragic date, May 3rd, the day when, in 2023, 9 children and the school guard were killed in the shooting at the “Vladislav Ribnikar” Primary School in Belgrade. Together with citizens, students, and professors, we observed 26 minutes of silence – 16 minutes for the victims of the canopy collapse and 10 for those killed at Ribnikar.
May 23 – The last day of high school. The day we said goodbye to the gymnasium after four years. The most beautiful moment of that day was when all of us, embraced, sang “Za milion godina” (For a Million Years).
August 2025: Citizens’ protest and regime’s repression.
Students symbolically gave the citizens a “green light” at the protest on June 28th in Belgrade and called on the public to continue the fight. From that moment, the regime’s repression became increasingly brutal, reaching its culmination in August.
On August 13th, a voice was heard over the loudspeakers of shopping centers, warning us to be cautious on the streets and to avoid Stražilovska Street in Novi Sad, where pyrotechnics were being fired at students and citizens.
September 5, 2025
After 16 minutes of silence in Novi Sad, the police brutally attacked citizens and students on the Novi Sad University campus. You could see nothing and could not breathe due to the tear gas. CN gas, which is not used as tear gas anywhere else in the world, was deployed against innocent citizens. Many citizens had unusual symptoms that day, such as swelling hands and excessive sweating. The police beat citizens to exhaustion. Officers rampaged through the city with batons; they showed no mercy. Too many disturbing scenes this month.
October 1, 2025: 11 months since the canopy collapsed.
11 months, 16 victims, 0 accountability. I stood in front of the Railway Station with my friends, looking at the candles and plush toys placed in memory of the victims, and I couldn’t stop myself from crying. After the 16 minutes of silence, the students called on all citizens of Serbia to come to Novi Sad on November 1st for the anniversary of the canopy collapse.
As November 1st approaches, people are asking themselves what has happened in these last 11 months. We have lived through too many thoughts and too much sadness in this last year, but we have survived it together. We all stood up together, to fight for justice, to fight for the victims – and although we know the path to justice is not easy, we will succeed one day, because we are united in this. As the Karlovci students say: “We meet, we love, we do not separate, and in the end, no one is alone!”
