Achillef-Gaitana Victoria-Theodora My name is Achillef-Gaitana Victoria-Theodora and I was born on 13/01/1986 in Volos. I have completed my studies in Theology at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, and I have a M. Sc. in History of Philosophy. Nowadays, I am a Ph. D. candidate in the Department of Theology. My hobbies are writing and traveling. My favorite destinations are the Oriental countries, and especially Constantinople, Turkey.
“Do you like loneliness?” she asked me… I didn’t know what to reply… I said yes, then I said no. She winked and went out of the wooden gate. I smiled. I wonder: do I like loneliness? SILENCE!!!! One can escape from everyone, but never from oneself… I like dreaming, traveling with my imagination, like the time I was a child.
It was the summer of 1980 when Athina became 5 years old. It was a beautiful summer evening on a forgotten little countryside village. Me, 3 more children, and she… in front of a huge walnut cake…birthday…Seagulls were flying in the orange sky, the house crickets were starting their night concert and a gentle breeze was caressing our cheeks. The years have passed by, always with the same scents – thyme, saltiness and woodbine…Always the same feeling of freedom and of sadness as well, as the sky was turning orange and the day was giving way to the night…
I was about 18 years old when my relationship with Athina started. It was July 13th, 1993, noon, and suddenly someone was knocking on the door. “It is Athina” my mother shouted, and my heart was full of joy, my feet were trembling, my soul was about to fly…I stood up and went to the threshold…I saw her standing in front of me, her hair was loose, her green eyes were moving like arrows towards my heart and it was as if her smile was absorbing me in a whirl of primitive and fascinating feelings. She gave me a hug and a kiss, and invited me to the bar “ACROPOLIS” on the occasion of her birthday. “Of course I will be there” I replied, and she disappeared swiftly like the fairy of the tale…
The night passed quickly, and it was time to return home. On the way, she said “look at the stars, there are thousands of them, if you open your mouth, you think you can eat them. Isn’t it magical?” Her laughter became mixed with the concert of the house crickets. I bent and kissed her. It was a trip in the air of the night, I was feeling so happy…The day after she would leave to London, I would never see her again, and so it happened.
Memories, the colors and scents of the evening, a smile, a hug, a tear – all these are worth living, and I experienced all these, I am happy that I experienced all these, that I ate the life and the stars of the sky; that’s how we should live our life, with moments, many moments full of feelings. Sadness is finally the one that makes us happy, and loneliness can take us to the most beautiful places of our life. It is the airplane in our story; it is the means to fly high, close to the stars of our mind and our heart. It is the stars that we stole from a summer sky when we were still children and there was clear evidence that dreams could come true, when miracles would happen at any moment and then the fairy tales would come out of the pages of the book and invade our lives; it was then when I fell for her.
“I like loneliness”, I concluded…
