Il racism to face, the pride of belonging to theItaly, the awareness that “diversity is uniqueness” and that “we are all the same beyond appearances”. paola egono leads to Festival di Sanremo a monologue in which he recounts his experience.
Paola Egonu, the monologue: “We are all equal”
"This evening – she explains, excited – I am not here to give life lessons, because at my age there are more things I can learn than I can teach. I try to learn something from every day and that was also the case in the weeks leading up to the Festival”.
“In the past I have often been described as hermetic, so over time I have tried to tell more about myself, trying to reduce the space for interpretation to a minimum. This has not prevented some sentences from being torn from context, cut, pasted randomly and thrown into the newspapers as headlines used to make noise”.
“I am the first of three siblings, and I owe everything to my mother Eunice and father Ambrose”, she smiles moved. “They are the ones who allowed me to live a happy childhood, who supported me and who taught me that if you want something you have to earn it. Without fearing sacrifices”.
“They helped me find my path, even if it meant for them to see me leave home at 13. I am not a mother, I dream of becoming one one day, but I am sure that no parent is happy for their daughter to grow up far from their love and their gaze”.
“Thank you Mom, thank you Dad, who for love of me, gave me up. Of course, I missed your caresses and your attentions and I still miss them. But I knew, we knew and I know that this is my path.”
“All equal beyond appearances. And give the right weight to criticism”
As a child she asked: “Why am I tall? Why does my grandfather live in Nigeria? Why do they ask me if I’m Italian?” Then, growing bigger, “The whys continued. Why do I feel different? Why do I live this thing as a guilt? Why did I punish myself every time by giving a wrong version of myself?”.
“Over time I have understood that this diversity of mine is my uniqueness. And that in the question “Why am I me?” there is already the answer: “Because I am me”.
"I – the volleyball player emphasizes – I am the one who, when people still ask me a question about racism, I answer like this: Take glasses of different colors and put water in them. You will see that most people will choose the transparent glass, just because its content is clearer”.
“And yet if you try to drink from one of the colored glasses, you will discover that the water always has the same taste, fresh and alive, because we are all the same beyond appearances”.
“I play on the attack – the volleyball player continues – and my goal is to be able to get my hands on the decisive ball to smash, the one that will score a point. Sometimes I succeed, other times I make mistakes and I'm learning to accept the mistake".
Growing up means learning “to give the right weight” to criticism, facing bad moments but also “enjoy the beautiful ones”. To the accusations of victimhood, of lack of respect for his country, he responds forcefully: “I love Italy, I wear with pride that blue shirt which for me is the most beautiful in the world and I have a deep sense of responsibility towards this country in which I place all my hopes for tomorrow”.
Having made mistakes in many finals, he says again, "it doesn't make me a loser. Just as the person who gets the lowest grade in school isn't a loser, and the person who doesn't achieve their dream on the first try isn't a loser. And then, since we're in Sanremo, the person who comes in at the bottom of the charts isn't a loser either".
The reference is to Vasco Rossi, who in 1983 came second to last. “Another non-loser, who taught us that the greatest successes can arise from the hardest defeats. Each with their own journey, each different”, concludes on the notes of Vita spericolata.
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