I thought I was a good mother. Then my daughter went on stage and, in front of a full room, said, “Mom, you don't love me!”
Antonia, in the role of her own past. And I, in the room, learning what it means to listen to it. A real story told with the calm voice of a child who learned to forgive. Photo: personal archive
“Mom, don't be upset. And don't worry. We have already overcome it.” So much told me my daughter, Antonia, before she was on stage in the show “No Academy of Economic Studies”, together with her colleagues from the National College “Saint Sava”. He didn't prepare me for what to follow. I don't even think he had how. Because nothing prepares you to see how your own child speaks publicly about abandonment with such strength, clarity and healing, that you, the adult, feel small and insignificant in the face of his courage.
I knew for weeks. That he works at a theater performance with actress Raluca Botez. But I found only on the day of the show (playing on the stage of the Excelsior Theater, at the Voice of the Bucharest High School Theater Festival) that it is not a simple show. It's a collective confession. An x -ray of trauma, told with the voices of teenagers who do not want to shut up.
On the day of the show, I learned that the song is called “Not the Academy of Economic Studies”. I understood the meaning only after I saw the show. Because it's not about diplomas, but about survival. Not about career, but about childhood. Each child spoke about a trauma he lived. But not as victims. But as heroes.
I sent it to therapy. But only on stage I really listened to
My daughter told about abandonment. About a period of her childhood that, although I explained after she grew up, I didn't know how to do it better than I did. And, it seems that, anyway, he didn't help. At the age of three months, I decided to go back to work to maintain the family. And I took her to my parents who do not live in the same city as us.
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