Petra Nemcova

Learn from the past, look to the future, but live in the present.

I grew up under Communism so we could only learn Russian, and then when Communism fell in 1989 we could learn a few more things and have the freedom to travel and the freedom of speech - and the freedom of dreaming, really.

I can dance for, like, four or five hours nonstop without even drinking water. It's a beautiful, beautiful thing.

I love to dance.

My secret passion is motorbikes. I want a Kawasaki Ninja.

There are lots of things which I would love to tell him, but in some way, I also feel that I lost the person closest to me. And I got a second chance to live. So in a way I feel that I live for both of us... and I will do my best.

I've learned a couple of things. And one of the things I have learned is that every experience has pluses and minuses.

If we focus on the minuses, we go down the spiral. But if we are able to focus on the pluses, we can become stronger and put more meaning into our life.

I was so afraid to even read a paper in front of my classmates. It is very funny because at that point my teachers would never have believed that I could speak in front of an audience of over 2,000 people.

It's usually when the cameras leave that the support leaves as well.

So, we have choice, and sometimes it seems very hard, but the best way to heal physically or emotionally is to keep positive.

I talk to Simon, I write to him. I never used to write a diary. But now I'm writing a diary to him. I think it's not just me, but lots of others, family and friends, can still feel him around.