ONCE UPON A TIME THE SILLY BOY WOKE UP

19.10.04


When I first came at work, I was in my office from 8:15, while I could be here at 9. The law says that people with a disability can work an hour less than their colleagues (without a disability) if they work for the public sector. At first, this seemed to me really unfair to the others and I had decided to come at work almost at the same time with them, not just to be the nice guy but also because I didn’t want to cause any reaction. I know well that people can envy you even for the slightest things. This is why I didn’t refer (in the beginning, at least) to my right to work an hour less than my colleagues. This didn’t last long.

As soon as they found out that I could be late but I didn’t do that, they started making fun of me: ‘Are you silly and you don’t just stay home and sleep an hour longer? Who do you think you are? Who are you to play it so cool?’ and other crap like that that made me change my mind. After all, I didn’t exactly wish to come at work at the crack of dawn. I did this for my colleagues, so that they don’t feel they are treated unfairly because of me. Since they insisted ignoring my intentions, I had every right to make good use of the legal provisions. Nowadays I come at work at 9 and everybody is happy.

Likewise, when I was studying for the Panhellenic examinations, I argued constantly with my mother, because she insisted on believing that I should be exempted from the examination procedure, since I was physically very tired with the many hours of studying. This is what she believed that should be done with all the people that had a disability, since, as she said, when you are a person with a disability you are already struggling hard enough to live and it is therefore unfair to be in trouble just to enter a university department. That’s what I was listening from her and I was surprised. I got mad like hell. I answered her: ‘Say what you want, I will sit the exams and I will even pass them. If I don’t, I’ll go study in London. So much the better for me.’.

I finally sat the exams (I just accepted to use the extra time I was given and after having done detailed work on the written test, I had an oral examination). I could just hand them my written work but my spelling mistakes were too many and this is why I preferred to speak of my thoughts. I sat the exams in the next year as well and I was admitted to the Department of Communication and Mass Media of the National Kapodistrian University of Athens. At first, I thought I had entered a Technological Educational Institution, the Department of Social Work or something; then I understood I was in a University School and bet between that and the Theater Studies Department or the History & Archaeology Department. The Mass Media one was my first choice and I was really surprised when I finally understood I had done it. It was not an imaginary achievement, as many people thought. I just simply wanted to have my own radio show and eat at expensive restaurants along with rock stars. I picked the University to get rid of parental guidance. Many years had to pass before I truly appreciated what I had achieved.

Despite my achievements, though, I was officially declared as the ‘sucker of the case’, since right after my success the state issued a decree that exempted us from examinations. This decree was valid for the next (almost) 3 years, since the exams were abolished for all. I will tell you something, even if you call me silly with capital ‘S’: Even if I didn’t have to sit exams, I still would; first of all because I don’t want to be different from the others for no reason but mostly because this procedure (of the Panhellenic exams) helped me immensely be hard and mature, precisely like most of the kids of my age with whom I shared this burden.