It was a freezing winter day. I was sitting at home since I was ill and was watching T.V. I was feeling bored when suddenly I heard someone knocking at the door.
I got scared because I was alone at home. My parents work all-day so they were absent at the moment. I had to react on my own. Their advice was “do not open the door to anybody�. But the knocking was persistent and as the time was passing it became louder. At the beginning I was afraid but later I found the courage to open.
It was a journalist from ALPHA T.V. channel show “Listen to what they said� and he invited me to take part in a T.V. quiz contest.
You are star!
I was very excited with the idea. It was one of my biggest dreams. I already started imagining myself as a T.V. star. Everybody would admire me, would think of me as an important person, would recognize me wherever they meet me and I would be one of their friends.
So far children hadn’t noticed me as if I was invisible for them. They didn’t speak to me, they didn’t listen to me, they didn’t even call my name. I was absolutely nothing for them. So I thought it was my chance to change the image of myself.
I felt a bit strange and desperate. I could do almost anything to get a little attention. I began imagining I could have a T.V. career, I could get power, money, glory and a lot of fans. So I would be happy. But would really all these things bring true happiness?
I asked the journalist what I should do to take part in the show and he told me I should have my parent’s permission. I waited for my parents to come home so that I could tell them the good news and I could persuade them to let me take part.
I could think of nothing else but how everybody would admire me and want me to be a member of their team. I imagined I would be a friend of theirs, I would be their leader, they would cheer me and congratulate me for being a great person. I would not be invisible for them anymore.
My parents though did not share my enthusiasm. They thought the idea was risky. They agreed to talk with me, however, because they felt it was important to me. They told me about the dangers of the television, about the things that might be said on air about me and they might be embarrassing.
I calmed them down, saying that nothing bad would happen because I would be very careful. The next day I went to the T.V. studio and they gave me some advice on how to prepare myself.
When I returned to school, my classmates’ behavior towards me was the same as always. But I began speaking about my participation to the T.V. program. At first they didn’t believe me. They thought I was making things up. But our teacher, who was watching that program on T.V. with pleasure, told my classmates that i there was in fact such a program on T.V.
My classmates thought my participation was courageous and they started approaching me, talking to me and seeking my friendship. But I didn’t feel completely satisfied and I wondered what real friendship is.
For me friendship is a relationship that makes me feel happy. It is support in difficult times. A friend is the person that helps, supports, encourages, takes care of me and is by me when I need him/her. We are all equal in friendship. Nobody is above the other. There is equality and respect.
Although I was in doubt, there was no time to lose because I had to be prepared for the next level of the contest. I went there full of enthusiasm but the game proved to be a set up. They didn’t react positively to my correct answers but they called on another participant who said silly jokes and made the audience laugh. They made me think a lot about my parents’ words.
When I went back to school my classmates looked at me disappointedly so I found myself in a worse condition than before. All said I was nothing, I was a failure. I felt very embarrassed. How could I change everything?
I stood up in class and I started speaking about my feelings. I explained I was feeling completely alone, I suffered when all of them didn’t talk to me and they wanted to get rid of me. All these made me feel insecure and frightened. I asked them to try to understand how I felt and imagine how it is to spend the whole day by yourself.
My classmates laughed at me but our teacher said: “all these things Peter said are very important and worth talking about. Think for a minute how you would feel if you were in his place and all the children laughed at you. How would you react? Think of it and tell me!�
Her words made me feel relieved and embarrassed. But I found the courage and said: “listen to me carefully! Imagine being in my place and see how I feel. Nobody deserves to be treated like that. I am a member of this class and I deserve respect�.
Then all children looked down. Little by little their behavior changed. A lot of them invited me to play with them during the break. Some others helped me with my homework. My life changed at once.
I started to see the world differently. I got back their love and trust. This made me feel really happy. My heart was filled with excitement and I thought I was really united with everybody else.
I smiled, I wanted to scream full of joy. Yes, life is beautiful with good friends around!
This digital book, entitled "Life is great with good friends around", is the result of a collaboration between D3 class of the 1st Primary School of N. Michaniona and D1 class of the 2nd primary school of N. Michaniona. It was written with the use of Google docs and it's creation was triggered by the reading of two different literature books by author Giota Fotou. Class D3 processed the book "Invisible Paul" which dealt with the subject of racism and class D1 the book "You chew, blow and win" which was about television, the projection of young children on screen and it's consequences. The common theme in both books was the idea of friendship. The teachers gave each class four key-words. Following the instructions in Jianni Rondari's book "The grammar of imagination"(specifically the chapter "Imaginary two-name") the story was written with no visual or verbal contact between the children of the two classes during the time of writing.It was a magical process which fascinated the pupils. One class would start writing a paragraph and the other class would continue next ,thus giving the story a different twist. Almost unanimously, both classes chose the title "Life is great with good company“ as this is the last sentence of their shared story. Teachers – mentor Falakidou Maria & Pavlidou Anna