Because I was utopian, I was against selectivity when I got that test done in 1982. I think that this was also an indispensable condition for going to university, but I do not remember well for what. In fact, at that time, I didn't know what was numerus clausus -- or I didn't know -- and we went into journalism at the first level a few hundred, a few hundred. Fifteen of them we called it “the Basque group” in a separata: in some subjects under the protection of the Basque Country; in the rest, in Spanish, in a giant classroom full of students.

Years later, as a professor at university, I spoke against the numerus clausus system. It seemed to me that everyone had the opportunity to start their dream studies. I believed in the utopia of equality, in the same rights for the rich and for the poor, for women and for men, for the all-powerful and for the persecuted.

I don't know what I've opposed now. The numerus clausus are more closed and smaller than ever before, and the Selectivity has always been named USE: Evaluation for Access to University. Basically, after every government and administration announced endless changes, to leave everything as it is.

This year, about eleven thousand students have undergone EUS-FNA at the University of the Basque Country, and another three thousand at the Public University of Navarra. The study of Basque Language and Literature at the UPV/EHU included the text written by Bernardo Atxaga: “Where are the old illusions going?” And in that sense, two options: writing to a friend a letter to tell projects, illusions and dreams, or an article of opinion, Gaztaroa, an era full of illusion, with the title.

What are the hopes and projects of these young people who were born in the year 2000? The experts analyze the characteristics of the z generation, the post-millennials or the post-millenials: tremendously endowed with technology, formed in social networks, connected continuously, that want to meet their needs immediately, accustomed to innovation and that live above all normalities.

These young people who look so far away from me have had to write this letter by hand and pen in the selectivity test. No emoticons. And what they have written is very similar to the letter I wrote in 1982: finishing studies, finding work, finding love, traveling, escaping parents, living at home... Projects always.

And you're empty all your life: you're not that skilled. In some cases, they are neither domesticated nor connected. Less satisfied yet. And they are comfortable in the well-known, old and normative area. Exactly like me.

Full of illusion, yes. But maybe not on the spot. Waiting for a new utopia.