On March 25th, 2017, Greeks all over the world were able to celebrate the 196th anniversary of Greece's independence. Greece's Independence Day commemorates the end of a 400 year long reign of the Ottoman Empire. If you know me, then you know how special this day is for me. I am a proud second generation Greek American.
If you've seen either of the My Big Fat Greek Weddings (yes, they're both extremely accurate and telling of my life), then you might recognize Gus Portokalos's famous words, "There are two kinds of people - Greeks, and everyone else who wish they was Greek." Growing up, I was often teased about my Greek qualities. When I was in elementary and middle school, my dark arm hair and slight moustache gave way to the nickname "sasquatch". Thankfully, my mother did a fabulous job at raising a confident daughter so this one didn't bother me as much as it made me laugh. But then, as if Hades (no, we don't believe in those anymore) ascended from Hell himself and brought with him demons disguised as teenage boys, high school was a bit different.
The older I grew, the deeper my love for my family's homeland became. Being able to go to Greece every summer wasn't helping my obsession either. I became a target of "we get it, you're Greek" tweets and people who I thought were my friends, suddenly became offended at my love for Greece and started using it to make fun of me. I was confused, hurt, and above all, emotional (cue the world's smallest violin). There were days in high school I would come home and cry to my Mom or Yiayia (Greek for grandmother), asking them why people hated how Greek I was. The only thing that seemed logical was that high schoolers are just evil and I had to learn how to not take things personally. The moment that I learned to stop listening to these people was the moment that I had my own Greek Independence Day.
After I realized this, the self-consciousness was thrown away and I never second guessed wearing my white and blue, Greek HELLAS hat or posting summer throwbacks from the island or sharing a Greek joke on my Facebook page. My Papou (Greek for grandfather) did NOT come to this country for me to feel embarrassed of my Greek ethnicity. And this was one of the most important lessons I took from my experiences, despite the fact that I cried and my feelings were hurt, I was never embarrassed. To me, one of the most amazing parts of the Greek people is that we are survivors. We persevere. Through four hundred years of rule under the Ottoman Empire, we never lost our agapi or our kefi. The simple translations of these words, love and spirit, do not do their true meanings justice. To love with agapi, is not to love plainly, it is to love wholly and ultimately, even in times of stress and mourning. To live with kefi, is not to live simply with spirit, it is to live fiercely and passionately. This Greek way of life that has started with my ancestors and been engrained within me, is what motivates me to keep moving forward.
The most important parts of my life all revolve around me being Greek, there is no way that I am going to let anyone make me feel ashamed of that. I know this allegory seems very specific, but I didn't write it with just Greek kids in mind. If you're reading this and relate to the mean high schoolers in my story, I promise you that college gets so much better. I was nervous at first to use my Greekness as my fun fact when doing introductions the first week but it was the best conversation starter. More importantly, if you're reading this and you can substitute my Greekness with your own culture, or hobby, or literally anything anyone has made you feel inferior about, I wrote this for you.
Never let anyone make you feel inferior for being yourself. Never feel like you need to conform to someone else's idea of "cool". Never let someone make you feel bad for being excited about something you love. Above all, I implore you to never be ashamed of who you are.
Personally, it's all Greek to me.
