The girl who shocked the whole of Greece with her participation in "Greece has talent" and the incredible strength of soul opens her heart to the magazine OK! and talks about the shocking moment she walked for the first time, about the unprecedented bullying she experienced from her teachers, but also about the three Guinness records she broke.
How did your classmates treat you at school?
I can say that my classmates treated me as if I were the same as them. I do not remember ever being singled out as something different. I did not experience racism from my classmates.
Did it bother you that someone might have treated you differently or felt sorry for you because of the peculiarity of your body?
Yes, I was unimaginably bothered by the look "what is it, why is it like that". I faced it almost every day from people of all ages. In fact, the worst thing for me is when I felt the look of sadness. There I reacted with bad behavior, because I am a person who prefers to find him than to feel sorry for him.
You said before that you experienced bullying by your teachers…
Yes, I had bad experiences in High School from some teachers, which I will never forget. For example, the question from a teacher of mine during a break "What do you plan to do in your life that you have the problem, while I also have a degree". Or the assistant principal calling my mother to come to school to talk, telling her that I have a psychological. And this should be done because I did not participate in her lesson! My mother, of course, did not even bother to deal with her. The same assistant director, in another phase, I remember telling me to go to her office, to talk and ask me for no reason if I was born that way or if I got it along the way. Of course I reacted. I do not think I should have given an explanation… In that case I just got up and left her office. This happened almost every week. They were trying to find that I was doing something wrong.
As far as I know, a similar incident occurred on an established trip to your school…
The assistant principal had come and told me to ask my father to come to the school the next day to talk. I asked her what I had done and her answer was "It's about traveling to Greece with school, we are thinking of not taking you because of your problem". The next day my older sister went to school with a girl who worked in the Welfare Office. Of course, they refused to talk to my sister and told her that they wanted my father. So the next day my father went to school and I just remember hearing his voices outside her office. He asked them questions such as "Why do you decide not to take Maria on the trip?" Do you see a person who is not independent? ", Continuing that" if he needs someone, it will definitely not be you. She has so many friends who help and care for her. And I demand that Maria go on the trip, like all her other classmates, otherwise I will take you out on the channels so that everyone can admire your behavior ". And then they started apologizing to my father and telling him that of course I would go on the trip and that they called him because of their concern that I would not get hurt during the trip. Cheap excuses…
On the last day of school you told your principal that you never want to see her again in your life. Why;
I was then president of the school and I had decided with the rest of my classmates to book a day earlier. The principal told me in front of my classmates, the teachers, but also my father, whom they had called again: "Do not think, because you have a problem, that I will not punish you." When I heard this, I forgot what respect for your elders meant and what I kept inside me for a whole year - which for me was martyrdom - I took out. I blurred, started cursing her non-stop, and if my classmates did not hold me back I would hit her. The saddest thing for me, however, was when I came back and saw my father crying, because he felt that I was taking out my inner soul at that moment. The result was that she threw my demeanor into decency and put me E in her lesson in Ancient. I was not moved when I saw them, and I just realized how small she is as a human being.
Did any of them ever apologize to you?
The assistant principal asked me when I was taking a math exam. When I finished, I went and knocked on her office door and asked her if she had time to talk. She accepted me and then I started telling her in every detail what I experienced for a year. He started crying and apologizing to me, telling me that he did not do it on purpose to hurt me, but that he wanted to be by my side. I started laughing ironically and she cried with tears. I got up to leave her office and she came to kiss me, to wish me good luck in my life and to tell me that she loves me. I laughed and replied that the wheel turns in this life and that I will never forget.
Read her full interview in the magazine "OK!", Which is published with the package of TODAY