An excellent student with a lawyer father, the decision was easy: Law. “Wonderful, creative, but also hard” science, as she describes it.
Athina Zafeiropoulou, lawyer, wife and mother, struggles to balance professional and family obligations, but also to become a better person. While fighting the difficulties, especially the Calvary he had to climb, with faith, love and patience.
-Strongest memories you keep from your childhood?
I grew up near Psila Alonia and playing hide and seek on the sidewalk of the apartment building is one of my most vivid memories. Back then, unlike today’s children, we had free time to play, meet our friends in the square, run.
Sunday walks with my parents and sisters after church were just as special. I remember that we waited long and long on Sunday to go and have my parents treat us to hot chocolate or even better to go to eat in some tavern or restaurant.
Finally, the holidays in my village, Kallifonio Kalavryton, are probably my most vivid memories. At Christmas we would take Grandma’s boat and slide in the fluffy snow, at Easter we would collect flowers from all the gardens to decorate, boys and girls, the Epitaph and in the summer we would climb the mountains to pick oregano, have a picnic, have a competition for who will eat the most blueberries!
-Did you always see yourself in the courts? Was law your dream?
I wouldn’t say it was a dream of a lifetime… I was always an excellent student and at that time, for the excellent ones, Medicine and Law were almost a one-way street. Law was more familiar to me, since my father was and still is a lawyer, so the decision was made without much thought.
-How would you describe your journey so far? -with the good and the hard.
Law is a wonderful science that every day makes you and you discover new paths, you face new challenges, you are called to manage intense situations. You are not hurt! She is creative! But she is also cruel… and especially for women! In the free legal profession, the female lawyer struggles to establish her position, to convince that she knows and that she is equal to her male colleague!
-What fascinates you about your job?
Initially I would say alertness and creativity. Every case brings you into contact with new ways of thinking, new knowledge, special people. No case is the same as another, and that is very charming, yet challenging.
-Would you say your profession is like…
I think it’s like the riddles we used to say as kids. It is a profession where you are constantly looking for the right answer to the puzzle you are called to solve. Except that there are often many answers and solutions, but you have to choose the most appropriate one according to your ethics and principles, the person in front of you and his requirements.
– On the one hand, the obligations of a profession that requires strong guts, on the other, family obligations. How do you manage the balances?
Balances? The scale never balances! I would say that from the moment a female lawyer starts a family she is “rocked” every day! Work-kids, kids-work! Depending on the day, the mood, the obligations! The kids and husband complain that they don’t see you as much as they’d like, that you’re on the phone all day, and clients complain that they don’t have you exclusively whenever they want, that you don’t answer their every call! No one is satisfied! Now I am convinced that this scale does not balance anywhere! It’s always on the move!
-Will you tell us about the “Flame” that ignited in your life?
The “Flame” LIGHTED up my life in its darkest period! The “Flame” held me and my family’s hand, smiled at us, gave us courage, a home to stay, doctors, support and lots of love! When our Melinaki, at the age of 2 ½ years, had to fight the hardest fight of her life, facing Cancer, the “Flame” was there from the first moment to enchant her and give her strength, so that today she is with us and to smile The Golgotha of a child and his family thanks to the help of “Flame” can really turn into a “fairy tale”. At least that’s how we experienced it! A fairy tale with the monster Cancer and the good fairy the “Flame” family who with her magic gave us strength and courage!
-In the battle with difficulties, in general, which weapons do you recommend?
Faith because everything happens for a reason. Love because it sweetens even the most bitter experience and patience without which you cannot evolve!
– Do you dream of…
I dream and fight to become a better person for myself and those around me. I believe that if all of us put the primary purpose of our lives to become better PEOPLE (with respect for ourselves, our fellow humans and the environment that surrounds us) then our world would be a dream!
#fighting #person
