丹妮拉·马林科维的父母在高中之后就都不再继续求学了，但是他们最大的一个梦想就是看到他们的女儿从大学毕业。

但是丹妮拉她不想去上大学，她觉得这是她父母的期望，这对她不公平。

“这是你们的决定，不是我的”，她声称，“我只做自己想做的事。”

但是，为了让她父母开心，她还是进入了贝尔格莱德的一所大学学习俄语。由于这不是她的第一志愿，她学得并不认真，很快就辍学了。

但她并不是特别忧虑。她现在20岁，可以轻松地在一家国际电信公司的本地呼叫中心找到一份工作。

过了几年，她和一位基督复临安息日信徒结婚并定居下来。但是她对自己的工作很不满意。这份工作太无聊了，而且缺少创造性和变数。她开始不想上班。

当她的儿子降生以后，这样的日常就被打破了/这恶性循环停止了。这位29岁的母亲请了三年的产假。在那段时间里，她想了很多。她无法想象她接下来的一生里，都要做这么一份无聊而没有满足感的工作。当她想起她是多么粗心轻率地就辍学了，她肠子都悔青了/追悔莫及。但是没有大学学历，就业机会就很有限。

在产假结束之前的那个夏天，丹妮拉和家人拜访了她在马其顿的父亲和继母。她父亲在离婚后再婚了。

她的继母，也是一位心理学家，鼓励她恢复学业，继续学习。

“为什么不准备大学入学考试，然后注册入学呢？”她说。

“但是我有孩子要照看，有家庭要照顾，还有家务要做。”丹妮拉反驳，“而且我还要重新回到我在呼叫中心的工作岗位。”

随着他们交谈的深入，丹妮拉渐渐开始相信她有能力可以平衡家庭，工作和学校课程了。于是丹妮拉申请在贝尔格莱德大学学习心理学，并开始准备入学考试。

但是贝尔格莱德大大学的入学考试时间被安排在周六。

丹妮拉向塞尔维亚基督复临安息日教会的主席求助。于是主席写了一封信给这个学校说明情况，但是学校的回信是这样说的：“很抱歉，我们不能仅仅为一个人改变考试日期。”

丹妮拉灰心丧气。大学似乎已是遥不可及。她把她的困难告诉了一位亲戚，这位女士曾经受到过良好教育。

“这很简单，”这位亲戚说，“你先申请一个不在周六考试的学校，然后注册入学。一年以后，再转学到贝尔格莱德大学就可以了。”

于是，丹妮拉在塞尔维亚的第二大城市诺维萨德（Novi Sad）找到了一所大学，该大学的入学考试在周五。而且她通过了入学考试。

第二年，丹妮拉忙得脚不沾地。她一周休息两天。她周六敬拜上帝，周一去学校上课。其余日子，她都从早上7点工作至下午3点，然后再驱车前往学校上课。还好她妈妈帮她带孩子。

“我一直都祷告上帝，并且我坚信我做的是对的。”丹妮拉说，“我有某种内在的力量促使我继续前进，并都以高分通过考试。”

九个月以后，她所在的电信通信公司进行重组，并裁掉了10%员工，总共约有100人。丹妮拉也炒鱿鱼，下岗了。但她把这事看作是一个祝福，因为这样一来，她就有更多的时间上课和兼顾家庭了。

第一学年结束时，丹妮拉决定不转学到贝尔格莱德大学了。因为她学校里的教授都接受了她和她的安息日信仰。

钱也被证明不是个问题。在被裁员后，她的学习成绩提高了，学校授予她全额奖学金。除此之外，她还在德国找了一份打扫房子的暑期工作。

当丹妮拉毕业时，她的父母引以为豪。当她再2018年10月获得心理学硕士学位时，他们更加喜上眉梢。

今年，丹妮拉41岁了，在贝尔格莱德的一个难民妇女中心担任ADRA现场协调员。而且她非常热爱她的工作。

“我的工作一点都不无聊，”她说，“当我得到这份工作的时候，我特别开心。这份工作需要创造力，充满变数，满足了我对工作的一切期望，这就是我想做的。”

这一季度的第十三个安息日的部分奉献将帮助新贝尔格莱德基督复临安息日会筹款建造自己的教会。新贝尔格莱德位于贝尔格莱德附近，丹妮拉在那里工作。

Back to School

Daniela Marinkovi’s parents never studied beyond high school, and one of their biggest dreams was to see their daughter graduate from the university.

But Daniela rebelled under what she felt were unfair expectations.

“This isn’t your decision but my own,” she declared. “I’ll do whatever I want with my life.”

Still, to make her parents happy, she entered a university in Belgrade to study the Russian language. Because this wasn’t her first choice, she studied halfheartedly and soon quit.

But Daniela wasn’t particularly worried. She was 20 and easily landed a job at the local call center of an international telecommunications company.

Over the next few years, she got married to a fellow Seventh-day Adventist and settled down. But work left her unsatisfied. It was boring. It lacked creativity and dynamism. She began to dread the daily grind.

The routine broke when she gave birth to a son. The 29-year-old mother left work for three years of maternity leave. During that time, she thought a lot. She couldn’t imagine spending the rest of her life working at a job that she regarded as boring and unfulfilling. Regret filled her as she remembered how carelessly she had quit the university. Without a university degree, employment options were limited.

The summer before maternity leave ended, Daniela and her family visited her father and his new wife in Macedonia. Her father had remarried after a divorce.

Her stepmother, a psychologist, encouraged Daniela to resume her studies.

“Why don’t you prepare for the entrance exam and enroll at the university?” she said.

“But I have a child and a family and a house to take care of,” Daniela protested. “Also I need to go back to my job at the call center.”

As the two women conversed, Daniela began to believe that she could balance her home, work, and classes. Daniela applied to study psychology in Belgrade and prepared for the entrance exam.

The university, however, scheduled the entrance exam for a Saturday.

Daniela appealed to the president of the Adventist Church in Serbia for help. He wrote a letter to the university, but the reply letter said, “We’re sorry, but we cannot change the date for one person.”

Daniela was keenly disappointed. The university seemed out of reach. She told a relative, a well-educated woman, about her difficulties.

“It’s simple,” the relative said. “Enroll in a university that doesn’t have the entrance exam on Saturday. After a year, transfer to the Belgrade university.”

Daniela found a university in Novi Sad, the second-biggest city in Serbia, that offered the entrance exam on a Friday. She passed the exam.

The next year was extremely busy. Daniela had two days a week off work. On Saturdays, she worshipped God. On Mondays, she spent the day at the university, attending classes. On the other days, she worked from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. and then drove to the university for classes. Her mother helped with her son.

“I prayed to God all the time, and I was convinced that I was doing the right thing,” Daniela said. “I had some kind of inner power that pushed me to keep going and to pass my exams with top marks.”

After nine months, the telecom-munications company laid off 10 percent of its employees, about 100 people, amid a reorganization. Daniela was let go. She saw the decision as a blessing because she had more time for her classes and family.

When the first year of studies ended, Daniela decided not to transfer to the university in Belgrade. The professors accepted her and her Sabbath beliefs.

Money didn’t prove to be a problem. Her grades improved after she was laid off, and the university granted her a full scholarship. In addition, she found a summer job cleaning houses in Germany.

Daniela’s parents were proud when she graduated. Their joy grew when she went on to earn a master’s degree in psychology, graduating in October 2018.

Today, Daniela is 41 and works as ADRA field coordinator for a refugee women’s center in Belgrade. She loves her work.

“My job is not boring,” she said. “I was so happy when I got it. It is dynamic and creative. It is everything that I wanted to do.”

Part of this quarter’s Thirteenth Sabbath Offering will help New Belgrade Seventh-day Adventist Church acquire its own building. New Belgrade is located near Belgrade, where Daniela works.