What Was Called Volunteering
In Mara's country, the word *volunteer* did not mean what the dictionary said.
The dictionary, technically, said that *to volunteer* meant to offer freely. The country said that *to volunteer* meant *to fulfil the citizen's two-year State Service obligation between the ages of sixteen and twenty-one.* The official forms said *Volunteer Application*. The school assemblies were called *Volunteer Awareness Days*. The state had been calling it volunteering for thirty-eight years. It was, by now, what the word meant in Mara's country, regardless of what the dictionary said.
The Service was — depending on whom you asked — either an excellent civic institution or a quiet form of conscription with no opt-out. The official line was that it was *fully voluntary in name and in spirit*. The unofficial fact was that, if you did not *volunteer*, your university applications were declined, your employment record was permanently flagged, and certain types of housing were not available to you for the rest of your life. The mechanism was so polite, so well-mannered, that nobody had quite been able to point to a moment of coercion. There was always a smile. There was always a form to sign. There was always a *we very much hope*.
Mara's older brother Lukas had gone the previous summer.
He had been sixteen. He had wanted, originally, to go to university to study music. The Service had — the