◆ Lia

After the final exam results of the first semester at the University of Athens were announced, Wang Xiaoxi met Katie, a staff member of the department's administrative office. "I remember you!" Katie smiled and said to her, "You're the one who scored 10 out of 0 in Latin!" Wang Xiaoxi was a little happy, she thought that she was finally no longer remembered by the school people because of her appearance and age.

She is 57 years old.

Last year, a post on social media titled "My Mother's Retirement Daily: Studying Abroad" attracted the attention of the whole network, and the mother in the post was Wang Xiaoxi. She was born in the farm of Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, and was admitted to China Normal University with high scores in the 80s of the last century.

I have had a wonderful working life, and I want to tap my residual value after retirement. Since last year, she has been studying Ancient Greek Archaeology, History and Literature at the University of Athens. If all goes well, a four-year undergraduate degree will be awarded. In order to help her mother through the adaptation period smoothly, her daughter Xiaoyu moved to Athens to live with her mother.

In this year in Greece, in addition to the knowledge learned in class, Wang Xiaoxi's biggest gain is to re-understand himself. Years ago, her college dissertation, titled "Gods, Man, and Their Destiny," was inspired by the inscription "Know thyself" engraved on the lintel of the temple of Delphi in Greece. "Self-awareness is important," she says, "and I found this subject in my life as a teenager and it will continue throughout my life." ”

Passed in all subjects during the semester

The tuition fee for admission to the University of Athens is 6000 euros for one year, and a total of six courses are set up in the first year. Three language courses: Latin, Ancient Greek, and Modern Greek, of which Modern Greek is a gift from the school.

Because it is a class (it is not included in the total score), the students do not cherish it very much. In addition, the class started in the evening, which dispelled the thoughts of some people. The full number should be 1 people, and in the end there were only 0 students left, and there were only 0 people in Wang Xiaoxi at the worst time. At the end of that night, the teacher stood up to thank her, the only student, for coming to class.

Ancient Greek, Latin and Hebrew, known as the world's three "dead languages", have stopped developing and updating over time, but they are the ancestors of more than a dozen modern "living" languages, especially in the archaeological community. Thousands of years ago, texts were usually written on papyrus or carved on clay tablets, and once they were unearthed by archaeologists, they required a large number of specialized translators to translate. Many of the students who graduated from this major are engaged in such jobs.

Each semester, the University of Athens holds five or six lectures on archaeology. Experts in the field of archaeology from various countries contact the University of Athens whenever they make new discoveries and are happy to share their academic work. This spirit of sharing touched Wang Xiaoxi, at least in the archaeological community, the world has achieved a sense of universal harmony. "Everyone regards these historical heritages as the common possession of all mankind, and is willing to share these earliest human resources regardless of country."

The hardest of all the subjects was Ancient Greek Archaeology, where she only scored 100 points, but she also passed. The strictest professor is a female professor who teaches literature, and Wang Xiaoxi heard that she graduated from Cambridge with a doctorate. This lady not only has tricky exam questions, but also has a heavy homework burden for students. "She has a lot of PPTs, 0 lessons are 0 PPTs in English, and each PPT has at least 0 pages."

The PPT of the three courses of archaeology, historical research and literature is often 100 pages or more, and she copied each page of the PPT of these three courses by hand and reviewed and sorted it out. Wang Xiaoxi's generation has a general level of English, so he has to look up new words while copying. Then translate the entire document to strengthen memory.

Looking back on the first semester now, she lamented that she had stumbled but still reached her destination. Daughter Xiaoyu's evaluation is "Although it flies low, it's good to be able to pass."

She was proud that she was the only Chinese student in her class to pass all subjects.

Favorite Medea

The new semester has begun, and Wang Xiaoxi has recently been busy with his reading homework on Aegean civilization. Here, students are encouraged to think freely and to record and share their thoughts at any time. Wang Xiaoxi left a reflection in the process of reading: "Ancient Greece has become an evolutionary channel for human beings. The teacher looked at it and said, "I strongly agree with you that you should share your thoughts with everyone in class." Reading here is to encourage you to have your own opinions and build your own thinking system. ”

In ancient Greek, the words ethos (morality), pathos (emotion) and logos (logic) constituted the three important fulcrums of the development of the language. Aristotle, Plato and others thought and expounded on the basis of these three points, and these words that shaped thinking ability later spread to the European continent, and to a large extent, laid the thinking system of later generations.

The classic characters portrayed in ancient Greek literature also greatly influenced later literary and artistic creations. Wang Xiaoxi said that his favorite character is Medea. This work by Euripides, the famous ancient Greek tragedy master, is known as one of the "three great tragedies". Medea uses magic to help Iason steal the Golden Fleece, but her husband turns her back on her for political purposes, so she embarks on a frenzied revenge campaign.

"You can get a glimpse of some of the qualities of a modern woman in her, because her character is set to be a magical person, which causes a lot of men to be afraid of him." In Wang's view, this is a metaphor. "A woman with extraordinary intelligence is considered uncontrollable, which makes a lot of people scared and stay away."

She feels that the greatness of Euripides lies in the profound complexity of his portrayal of Medea, which allows this character to break through the limitations of history and historical background, and even today, more than 2000 years later, it can still cause a certain echo and resonance in the depths of people's minds.

While most people only see Medea's madness and paranoia, Wang Xiaoxi pays more attention to her courage and determination, which also allows her to look at herself.

Pursue inner approval

When the story of Wang Xiaoxi's retirement spread online, the comments were not surprising to go to two poles. There are those who applaud and envy, but there are also many people who can't understand her choice.

"They say what I'm doing when I'm so old? delayed his daughter again, and he didn't take good care of his husband. In short, to say that I am selfish. "When those people make that assessment, I know they're consciously in another system, and I'm not in it." In my cognitive system, I consider myself to be a person of self-respect and self-love, a person whose life is not limited, and I have the right to pursue what I want. ”

She candidly admitted that some family members also did not understand this "deviant" behavior, and they reminded her to be aware of her identity.

"I feel like I'm a person first, a woman second, and then a wife, a mother, and a daughter. And the relationship between my different identities means that the other person should also be an independent individual, and they should also be self-actualized, self-fulfilled, or at least able to take care of themselves. ”

Did the doubts and accusations from relatives and strangers disturb her mood, even if it was only for a short time? She recalls an incident that happened when she was younger.

During his time at ECNU, Wang Xiaoxi, like many young women in the city, developed the habit of playing umbrellas under the sun. "At the end of the 80s, there weren't any fancy parasols, so if you had a slightly lighter folding umbrella, it would feel like a girl's accessory."

After graduating from university, she was assigned to work in a different place, and under the scorching sun in July and August, she also walked with a parasol like when she was in Shanghai, not wanting to attract onlookers. "I was a little flustered at first, because they were all saying that it was raining on that man's head. But soon I regained my composure, and I proudly walked with an umbrella, feeling like a landscape. ”

Now that she suddenly thinks about it, she feels that she has a spirit in her bones that dares to go her own way and is not afraid of being judged by others. Such a personality sometimes inevitably puts her in some difficulties, and then she thinks of her father. Mr. Wang's father, who used to drive a large truck, said that he would have blind spots when driving. "Everyone has blind spots in life, and you can't see some of your problems." Her father told her, "So you have to be rational about other people's criticisms of you, and some of them can help you grow." But for those who vent purely malice, don't care, and have enough concentration not to be affected. ”

Wang Xiaoxi said that she developed an attitude of not caring about the approval or disapproval of others because she only lived to pursue her inner recognition.

Pulled out "that thorn"

During the Spring Festival this year, Wang Xiaoxi's husband originally planned to go to Sanya to reunite with his mother, brother and sister-in-law and other families, but temporarily changed his mind and asked his daughter Xiaoyu to book a ticket to Athens for himself.

"I asked why, and he said that the money spent on going to Sanya for the Chinese New Year was the same as coming to Athens, so it was better to come here, haha." The laughter of this 57-year-old aunt revealed a girlish feeling, "He didn't directly say that he wanted to come to accompany his wife, so he used money as an excuse, but I know it." ”

In Wang Xiaoxi's view, this is a big victory for himself. The husband is a Ph.D. in economics and comes from a conservative family. At her husband's house, the Spring Festival is the biggest event of the year. They are keen to have New Year's greetings and dinner with some relatives who can't beat them, everything is for the sake of face, and everyone has their own face to earn.

She quickly saw through all this, so she refused to accompany her husband back to his hometown for the New Year, which naturally attracted criticism, but she didn't care. "I never act, I'm the real me, I want to be comfortable."

And this time, in order to cross the ocean to accompany his wife, the husband gave up the most important tradition of the family. During that time, the two had a lot of ideological collisions, and she could clearly feel that her husband was changing.

She shared with her husband the story of her neighbor, who had a long-standing feud with her brother because of his wife, but when he learned that his nephew was admitted to university, he immediately invited the child to Athens. Buy him gifts, treat him to a big meal, and let him live in his own house. Wang Xiaoxi asked the neighbor, "Have you never complained about your wife?" He replied, "Everyone has their own ideas, and you have to respect them." After listening to this, the gentleman was silent for a long time, and said that it was good to have more contact with different cultures.

After this Spring Festival, Wang Xiaoxi sent her husband on a flight back to Shanghai. At that moment, she felt that the "thorn" in her heart for a long time had finally been pulled out, and the glare was slowly healing.

postscript

Last semester, Wang Xiaoxi's GPA reached a total score of 57.0, and the goal of this semester is to strive for a little more progress. But she is 0 years old after all, and sometimes she feels that her physical strength has betrayed her will. So I had to put down my books and take a break.

"When the sun came out the next day, I felt in a good mood again." She said, "A person's life is really limited, I want to live a long life, but when I look back, 60 years are almost gone, so time is really waiting for no one." So, why can't I enjoy the life I want to live? ”

During the New Year's cleaning, she cut off the things she was reluctant to throw away at one time, and announced, "From now on, I want to use the best and latest things, and I will have a good mood to earn a day after a day." ”

A few days ago, the local area experienced a cooling temperature, which suddenly dropped below zero degrees Celsius. Wang Xiaoxi found boots and a leather down jacket that he rarely had the opportunity to wear, and found that it was really heavy after putting it on. "But I thought: Oh my God, why don't I wear such a nice outfit? I'm just going to get dressed up. Then I walked to school crunching in my boots, the boots were cowhide, and I felt like a cow, bullish! ”