Socially active or a housewife

It is 1.11 am. Everyone is asleep... my family, my neighbours, everyone. I choose to be awake and write my personal story, for it is my chance to be heard. People are too busy to listen to my stories, to what I have to tell. My head is full of stories that are ready to be told. I feel my head heavy and this gives me strong headaches. My two year old son is too young to understand what I have to tell. We spend most of the day together – just me and him. I used to be an activist for human rights and women rights in Greece, but by the time I came to Canada, I didn’t have the opportunity to become involved in any social movements. I first had to solve vital issues about my new life. Being socially active back in Greece had helped me a lot to realize my family’ s and my own past misfortunes, and then move forward. Domestic violence, disability, poor educational background, conservatism, and low income were part of the grey future that was also my future. Being young, I wouldn’t accept it. My dynamic character became my strength and drove me out of the depression and misery that women fall into when they are treated unequally and are not allowed to make their own dreams for the future!

Now I am a mom who gets tired of caring non-stop for my family and others, yet I pull together my strength to study and learn online in the hopes of changing my path from that of the average housewife. The Internet is my only way to look outside to the world and feel free, so I have a strong motivation to participate in Voices of Our Future. Getting involved in a social movement that excited me is what I really need right now!

It is 1.25 pm on the next day. My motivation had leveled off again. I had to finish up writing my story but I was feeling exhausted and discouraged until ... I received a lovely message through World Pulse from a woman in Papua New Guinea – thousand miles away from where I live. It made me feel really nice. I felt that someone somewhere values my existence. So, I got my strength back up again, and here I am finalizing my story and sending it out to people I don’t know but who want to hear from me.