*originally posted on greeceisthewordbirdz.wordpress.com
who are you?
elena.
where are you from?
crete.
anything else?
i’m a rebel. [laughs.]
how?
i don’t know, i just like to—how do i say this in english?—go against the current.
you know how people ask, do you want to be famous and if so, what for? i wouldn’t want to be famous, but if i had to choose, i’d like to be famous for starting a great revolution.
what would the revolution be for or against?
for the idea that we are all sisters and brothers and all equal.
and that we are not as important as we think.
where would the revolution start and end?
good question. it starts from the beach in antiparos and it finishes at everest in the himalayas.
i think i meant, how?
spreading the word to all the good people that are out there.
that’s simple.
it should be simple like that. and just by believing that it’s worth it to try.
what do you do in life?
good question. i always find it hard to reply. for this moment, the past decade, i travel. that’s the basic thing i want to do. i don’t consider my job that important. when i studied, i didn’t like what i studied.
how do you sustain yourself? by working. but i used to work as a secretary when i started, then i work as a waitress during the season here, and i volunteer in other places in exchange for accommodations.
on what do you place the emphasis in your life?
simple things in every day life: to be able to see the sunset, stars. i’m a romantic you know? (laughter)
do you live truly as yourself all the time?
not all the time, but it is for sure one of my goals.
when i look at you i see someone who seems more herself than most people i have ever met. when are you not?
the least, when i have a routine. in the city, i lose myself very easily.
the most, during the summer. it feels light. or when i am traveling i feel very much myself.
i’m learning that we’re not so different.
oh, what do we have in common?
not the revolution part. i am too lazy for that, but if it fell in my lap and was my calling, okay. but the part about feeling most myself when traveling, and least when i am in a boring routine.
the most common routine is being in the city, sucked in to daily work: you get tired, go home, do it again. i feel very judgmental of people who are doing exactly what society is making them do. you go to college, you get married by 28, but why am i so judgmental? we’re just different. i have my own routine, which is that i change my city every 6 months. but it’s the daily life routine that’s f-d up.
don’t you have one here?
yeah, but it’s so simple, it feels natural. day comes, day goes, and it’s just living the life.
i feel similarly, how sometimes i can be judgmental towards people who are living these lives that seem very rooted in what society deems normal, because i feel like my life is not so normal, but if it makes them happy, then who am i to judge?
all these rules we follow are fabrications. it’s not the way i want to do things, but it’s been there since we were in the womb.
way before that.
exactly. one example would be an average person—not everybody of course—but if you ask somebody that is about to have a kid, what would you like your kid to be: a doctor or constructor? they would say a doctor. why? we do things just because we want others to see.
i feel like i keep asking the same question. or being brought back to the same sort of question. if you were the only person on earth, what would you be doing?
good question. just living i guess. collect food. cook it. sleep a little bit. take a siesta. …i’m all alone and i have no friends?
yes.
gaze at the stars, see the sunset, see the sunrise. sleep after it gets dark. simple things, man. and then, i don’t know, i’d like to work my mind as well, somehow, but i dunno.. do i have books? do i have things to watch?
sure. i would do that as well, then. listen to music. be close to nature. meditate a lot, i guess, if you have it like this. even though i don’t meditate, but under these conditions, i would.
do you ever get bored?
yeah, of course.
but in this situation that i’m talking about, would you?
yeah, i would, because there wouldn’t be any change, and i like change.
but you didn’t mention that you’d be bored. i think a lot of people would be like, “i’d be so bored” or “i’d kill myself.”
if that’s the reality and everybody vanishes, then, yeah, i’d be bored. but if it’s what i always knew, it’d be different. i guess i would be friends with the plants and the animals.
what would you want your tombstone to say?
i would want to be criminated…? cremated. [laughs.] burned, man.
something funny and sarcastic probably.
“no shame, no regrets.” [laughs.]
isn’t that the goal after all? the philosophers say it’s so hard to deal with death because you have to deal with what you have done and who are you in life, so if you end up having no regrets and no shame, you did it right.
god, is that possible?
you just have to deal with it. but you have to make the regrets become lessons and accept what you did, even if it’s something bad. like me, i have this one regret. i bullied this guy in middle school. and i really regret it. i made the classroom write – he was really against me – and i told him one day, “you’re against me. are you sure you wanna do that?” and he was like, “blah blah blah.” so i think i made a note for my classmates to sign if they consider him a friend or not. and they didn’t. i’m sorry, grigoris, wherever you are. he didn’t really care, though. i give him that.
if he were here in front of you right now, what would you do?
i would tell him that i’m sorry for what i did. and i hope that it didn’t hurt him. and if it did, i’m genuinely sorry.
that’s your only regret?
everything else that i have done, they deserved it. or it had to be done. some things have to be done. one thing, for example, do you know how many times i’ve taken the high way, or, what is it? the high road. loads. and for what? so that i know i did the right thing? at the end, it’s very egocentric, my motives. but i should have done other things, be more mean, maybe, or tell them off.
how do you want to die?
out of old age. i really want to be a grandma and be grumpy and give no f-s and have my tomatoes.
where?
close to the sea.
which sea?
geographically?
yeah.
the mediterranean, if it is the way it is right now in how many years. i don’t think it will be though, so i will have to change.
any closing sentiments? cause we just came full circle.
i’m glad that i met you, man.
aw, me too.
peace out.
…
[she continues…]
i have done nothing professionally.. in my love life, even worse. but friendships man, i’ve done very well. particular ones, full of honesty and very good. our paths crossed, and we really took advantage of it. and it’s something you have to try for in a way. sometimes it’s naturally like breathing, sometimes you have to work for it, but it pays off, so it’s fine.