There is the long jump. There is the high jump. There is also the leap into the void, which is also known as "end what you knew, now we are running". Of course, this is not a sport, although it looks a lot like a marathon.
Anyway, so as not to confuse you, dear reader, can you say it as you wish? And even before 30? You are running. To be precise, you run and you do not reach.
Carelessness is gone, insults are gone, nonsense is gone, nights are gone. !Πα! The latter does not apply. The nights continue. Not in clubs, not with nice women around you, not drinking one jack Daniels after another, but in the living room. Up and down, with the baby on your shoulder until you make it flow, go in and sleep the blessed one and close your eyes a little and rest your crumpled body.
Strange story, with many positives and so many negatives. The issue, as it almost always happens, is this infamous glass. Is it, after all, half empty or half full?
In the beginning it is nonsense
There are good and wise children. Those that are from school to tutoring and from there to home. Public admission first: I was not one of those kids. We finished school in the evening (for those of us who went to night school, I say) and went for a drink and a harpoon.
In the morning, half asleep, half drunk, I got on the tram and went to the center of Athens for work. I was coming home, I slept a little at noon. Then I did what I went to school and then again for drinks.
We organized excursions with the 15 members, we did not make any squatting in order to keep the competitive spirit high and somehow the school life was completed. Then came the army and then the bass school and the της dream of journalism came true. In the meantime you will not go out to drink? Well, you will go out. Stadiums (inside and outside the home), marches, nights out, concerts, drinks etc etc
Life without obligations. You got on the charter, flew to Liverpool, watched the team and came back in less than 24 hours. What why; Because you could.
And then the first job in the newspaper. And you know another world. We worked (and worked hard) until 9-10 at night. Then they opened the hidden cabinets of the office and took out the bottles. We drank and when the newspaper closed we went for… no drink.
You fell asleep and forgot to wake up. Nobody bothered you. And give him nonsense and things that can not be written. And life went on…
And suddenly. Dad
Public admission second: And because this karma has a strange tendency towards revenge, it was time, my dear reader, to be "punished" for everything I did to my parents.
You know the "face". You spend some years together and the time of crisis comes. Will you take the girl? You will take it. E, and after you got it, what? Will you sit and look at each other inside the four walls? "Scam, mom, no gossip now that you are young and have stamina"! Great conversation, dear reader, this "now that you have stamina"! You do not understand it at the time they tell you. You understand it later. When it's too late.
And you "scam" the gossip but you still have not seen what comes to you. Bad lies, otherwise women experience all this, otherwise men. To feel it we have to take the baby in our arms. Before, we simply make drawings on paper, which, in fact, go for a walk later.
Somehow, I found myself a dad at 29. I had not even reached the first "anta" when I first held my daughter in my arms. Everything at that time looks so unprecedented, so idyllic. You do not know that someone… Kim Jong Un has pressed the button!
I still remember the obstetrician's phone call the night before the birth. "Enjoy this night, you will never experience anything like this in your life"! It sounded a bit threatening is the truth.
And then came the pink chaos! The whiskey bottles were replaced by milk bottles. The money that would go to a butcher shop becomes diapers and creams. What you would spoil for clothes, become overalls and zippers. Where they will sit to watch a movie or listen to music, now you sit on your knees and do "coupe" and "elbow-elbow". The sleep you once had to borrow is now an endangered species like white lions.
Exit is an unknown word. "What are we going to do?" "If I manage and find 10 minutes, I will fall dry", was the answer to the calls of the gluers. Gradually you reduce the… visits to the stadium. For no reason away from home.
Suddenly, you no longer have the slightest importance. Everything revolves around this tiny creature. This weighs down the drum and you dance. No, as the markets would dance. You normally. With a quick step, in fact. Pentozali type.
And if I were born again I would do the same
And we come to the crucial question, my dear reader: If I could go back in time, would I make the same choices? The answer is one and must be said in the style of Zoe Konstantopoulou, when she was in the presidency of the parliament. Of course! I would not change the slightest. With the mistakes and the right ones. With the good and the bad.
Of course, there are those who say "live first and then have a child". There are two answers to this. The first is emotional. If you do not have a child, you can not know what all this means and how much life it gives you. There is another answer that is more… kaffir. What can you tell us about your life, as Terlegas says. Before I turned 30 I had done almost everything and I had a child. Beat that!
The truth, however, as it happens in all things is somewhere in the middle. Having a small child is a difficult choice. You lose some things, you gain some others.
You lose a few years (if you have not decided to remain single) of carefree life and nonsense, but you gain in experiences that you otherwise live in the 30s or in the 50s. And of course it is invaluable, eleven years later, to see your friends who once played it cruel and ruthless, to change diapers on their babies while you prepare for a night out and drinks! What why; Because my child, my friend, has grown up now, and I am only 40!