Odysseys: Albanian emigre craves nostalgia

Every time Ernast Sevo goes back to his native Albania for a visit, everything seems so much smaller than he remembers: houses, streets, trees. He knows it’s a distortion, a function of his childhood perception. Ernast was only 11 when his family changed homes from Albania to Albany, N.Y.

Back then, he didn’t really comprehend the magnitude of the move. It was a long flight. Lots of airports. The immigration checkpoint.

“Our relatives picked us up, and what stands out in my memory is this massive mall and a big Sears logo, one of those things you just see in American movies,” he says.

As a teenager, Ernast quickly adjusted to his new routine: school, learning English, new friends.

“At the school where I transferred, a teaching assistant was so nice. She labeled everything with index cards in English all over the classroom,” he says.

It made his life so much easier. He became fluent in English in just over a year.

When it was time to choose college, Ernast decided to stay in the same state as his parents, older sister and her family. He went to the State University of New York at Albany to study film, but it turned out that the school didn’t offer the program he had anticipated.

Another factor pushing Ernast toward change was pragmatism. His parents were not so sure he would find a job with a film studies major. He was not so sure, either. Film was his passion, but he was good at math and applied sciences, so he decided to transfer to the University of Pittsburgh and pursue film studies there, but also focus on computer science.

“Before that, I never really ventured outside Albany,” he said. “I was looking at Pitt, and I saw that they had a partnership with Pittsburgh Filmmakers and you could take production courses there. I saw that there were other universities: CMU, Duquesne, Point Park. I thought it was a perfect combination. I had not visited Pittsburgh before I decided to come here. It worked out perfectly in the end.”

That change of focus now pays Ernast’s bills. He is a software engineer at an O’Hara-based company called ZOLL Medical Corp., which makes wearable defibrillators. Yet his job is not just about a paycheck. With his skills, Ernast could be making Web pages or working on his own startup.

Instead, he said, “I enjoy what I do at ZOLL because it helps people — a wearable defibrillator has been around for 10 years now, maybe even more. As a company, ZOLL has been growing, and by now they have saved 2,600-plus lives, and occasionally you get a letter from someone who says, ‘Thank you. Your device saved me.’ And that’s what I like about what I do.”

Ernast has a special appreciation for Oakland. It’s nostalgic in a way — the neighborhood keeps memories of his student days alive. He loves hanging out at Schenley Plaza, staring at the Cathedral of Learning and eating some street food.

“I love Las Palmas; their taco stand is unbelievable,” he said about the place on Atwood Street.

Ernast’s trips to Albania also inspire nostalgia, even the memories that did not seem so happy when it was under communism and the quality of life there was not good.

“When I was growing up,” he recalls, “I remember lots of power outages. Entire cities would just be in darkness and we, little kids, would still be outside because there was nothing to do otherwise. Then the lights would come on and there would be a collective cheer of relief: clapping and joy. It was not a fun thing, but it seems like it was, when you look back.”