DECISION

25.09.04


Today I watched basketball, tennis and athletics. I was sitting again in front of my television (counting the 10-Euro notes) and thought: ‘Since I am watching this anyway, why don’t I go see it there?’. As I wrote to you before, I had been there on the previous day as well (to the O.A.C.A.). I went crazy! You can’t even begin to think how great it is. It’s the most brilliant celebration where I’ve been in the last years. And what a great organization (at this point, I should really congratulate mrs. Angelopoulou on her achievements).

Able-bodied and disabled athletes coexist in one of the most beautiful spaces of Athens in a very harmonious way. To be precise, I didn’t see there any person with a disability. I only saw happy athletes and spectators walking around with their colourful wheelchairs. I saw the blind people see me in turn and the deaf people hear me. For the first time in my life, I fell proud of what I am.

I was gaping idly at the flashy clothes of the athletes, their super wheelchairs and their ultramodern dyed hair and I felt that I was among friends and brothers, like the wolf that comes back to his herd or like the Native American who finds his lost siblings. This might sound ultimately racist. But this is how I felt: not like when you belong to a gang but like when you discover that there is a million people like you who are neither miserable nor uneducated nor lazy. Nothing but. These are people who take care of their soul and body while they are capable of entertaining you at the same time. I was not in the least as significant as they were. Just trash! I was sorry to have missed so many years turning my back on all those people. I felt that the time to do something different had come. I made my decision. I will go for sports no matter what. Hell, it’s never too late. Never!