I am a migrant.

For me, that means I am not fully one culture, nor neatly divided into two. Over time, I have learned to inhabit a third space — and then many more beyond it.

I recognise this because when I am with my Polish friends, my roots, my Australian way of thinking quietly rises to the surface. And when I am with my Australian friends, my Polish ways — shaped by migration, memory, and history — make themselves known. I am always slightly more than the room I am in.

What I have come to understand, especially through travel and curiosity, is that I am far more than the sum of two cultures. I am expanded by the many places I have visited and the many people I have loved — friends from different corners of the world who invited me into their languages, customs, food, humour, grief, and joy.

Through them, I have been stretched.

My understanding of people, relationships, and humanity has widened. I have learned that beneath our differences, we share the same essential needs: dignity, respect, love, belonging, security, opportunity, care, and structure. I have tasted foods that altered my senses, walked landscapes that rearranged my sense of scale, and encountered lives that quietly changed how I understand truth.

In my darkest moments, this knowing has sustained me. It reminded me that I was — and am — rich, not in possession, but in experience.

And still, I remain deeply rooted.

I carry my DNA, my ancestors, and their unfinished stories within me. Their voices are awake in my daily life, echoing in ways both subtle and unmistakable. I welcome their whispers. I honour the journeys they took — spiritually, emotionally, and mentally — because they live on through me.

In this way, I know I have passed something meaningful on to my children: not only ancestral memory, but a widened world.

I feel blessed.

Life is a gift. And if life is a gift, then so is every human being within it. This truth settles deeply in me — offering faith, and with it, hope.

~ Evgenia Pimżin