Stop giving me ‘that look’ when I tell you I’m from Greece

You meet me, we start talking about ourselves and all the awesome things we have to say and you think I’m a really cool American – then I tell you I’m from Greece.

That’s when I get the look.

If you’ve met a Greek in the last couple years you’ve given them this look, even if you didn’t mean to, but we both know you probably meant to.

It’s a similar look to the one couples give the life-loving single girl, but with a an added touch of “it sucks to be you”. Then the conversation goes from you really interested in what I have to say, to you trying to convince me how right you are about how much my life sucks because you watched this thing on the news.

There have been instances when I’ve purposely kept the fact i’m Greek quiet just to avoid conversations like these – something I’m not proud of at all.

I used to boast about my carefree life and endless summer nights, but then I moved away for college and everyone had a different opinion about my country. The words “You guys are fucked” used to follow even the happiest story I was telling about something back home. Is reminding me about possibly getting kicked out of the Eurozone really necessary when I’m telling you about my grandmother?

That’s when I would use my American side (I’m half American, so have Greek and US citizenship) to justify the fact I’m in a better place than most greeks – and I hated doing that. But it just made awkward conversations a whole lot simpler.

Greeks are the proudest people I know for being who they are, and there I was afraid to tell some small town kids who only know the British tourist destinations of Greece, where I was from. It wasn’t that I was ashamed of being Greek – I just wanted to avoid everyone’s unnecessary need to prove a point how they were better than me.

In Britain, before the Eurozone crisis, the conversations about Greece were still ill-informed, but in a different way. Back then everyone associated Greece with cheap, trashy 18-30 holidays instead of the rich culture it really is. Going to Malia with 20 friends after you finish high school doesn’t count as having been to Greece. I actually had to ask the first Brit I met where Malia was, because we don’t go there. It is the definition of a cheap holiday in more ways that one. Think of going on a really shit UK university night out where everyone is blackout drunk, throwing up and asleep in the streets after they get in a fight for swearing at literally everyone. Then imagine that night out in 30 degree weather by the sea – that’s when you get Malia or any other British tourist destination.

One of the biggest slaps in the face was during the 2012 London Olympics when a British delegate gave the opening speech welcoming the Olympics “home”. That’s the moment every single greek person’s jaw dropped.

People only see Greece dragging the rest of the world down but they forget, or don’t even know, Greece was the country which actually influenced the world they live in today.

To name a few things Greece invented:

• Democracy
• Architecture
• Geometry
• Philosophy
• Theater
• The Olympics
• The Marathon
• Public Jury
• History
• The Hippocratic Oath

So when people tell me “Oh yeah i’ve been to Greece I know what it’s like”, it’s me giving them the look.

But in the past few years, things have changed. Now, people don’t just associate Greece with their alcohol binge holidays, they pity me because they think the country is falling apart. The hardest thing was hearing people who had nothing to do with Greece spark up a conversation about the latest government fuck-up in front of me. I would just sit there silently sipping my drink hoping they would change topic before I told them where I was from and started backing up my country – because this never ended in a friendly night out. It’s relatively easy to do — with my blonde hair and pale skin my appearance doesn’t exactly scream Greek – and not even the other Greeks knew where I was from at first.

But I’m not at all ashamed of where I’m from. I spent the first 18 years of my life in Greece, and three at college waiting to go back. Yes the financial situation sucks and the crisis has changed everyone’s life – including mine. But if you haven’t experienced it first hand, you have no right to talk.

We’re fully aware what’s going on in our country and definitely know more than anyone happened to find out from sitting in front of their computer. The difference is while they were watching Greece go to hell on TV, most of us were probably on one of our thousands of amazing beaches or dancing the night away until 8am.

Since the media coverage has died down and having moved across the ocean to work in America the backlash when talking about Greece hasn’t been nearly as negative. Since it’s off the news people have seemed to stop caring.

I haven’t been back in almost a year and even though I miss it, it’s not the best place for someone to start a career. I hear from friends still struggling right out of college and I’m thankful I’m not in their position, but I admire the love they still have for their country and how they still can enjoy as much as Greece has to offer. One minute my family group chat could be discussing the recent issues with the crisis, and the next talking blowing up with photos of the amazing sunset over the Mediterranean Sea.

That’s because greeks have something no one else has – we see the good in what we have, even when the rest of the world is against us.

We grow up with an 180 degree view of the sea outside our bedroom window and a family bigger than some high school graduating classes. While everyone looks forward to summer so they can take their tropical vacation all we have to do is step outside and we’re in paradise. We might not have the rest of the world on our side, but we’ll always have that.

Greece is one of my favorite places in the entire world and it will always be home.