‘It was my dream’
She wakes up at 6 a.m., tidies the house a bit then gets ready for work (at a shipping company). When she comes home, exhausted, in the late afternoon, she prepares a meal for herself and her son, then collects her textbooks, her copybooks and sets out for school. She gets back home after 10 p.m. «It’s a constant battle, but I like it,» says Maria Ilia, 57, with all the enthusiasm of a young child. This year Ilia is attending computer classes in the second year of Professional Evening Senior High School, having completed the Second Chance School of Piraeus with a diploma equivalent to that of junior high school. «It was my dream. I left school after primary education. You know how it is, the second-last child of a large family. In those days they didn’t pay much attention to studies. So when I read about the Second Chance School. I didn’t just take the opportunity, I grabbed it!» Now that her son has started tertiary studies, Ilia has more time, which she wants to devote to her studies. «My plans include going to university, maybe to study computers, maybe something else, we’ll see. So what if I’ve got my pension in the meantime?»
