Câștigător la Concursul FollowMe 2024: The Story of My Brave Grandpa

eleva de gimnaziu imbracata in rochie rosie si bunicul ei danseaza si zambescdanseaza — Maria Georgescu, elevă de gimnaziu, și-a invitat bunicul, pe care îl admiră și care reprezintă o sursă de inspirație pentru ea, la dans.

Povestea câștigătoare a concursului online organizat de școala de engleză FollowMe Bucuresti, scrisă de Maria Georgescu. Pe Maria o puteți întâlni la cursul de engleză, la școala FollowMe din Drumul Taberei. E isteață și spirituală, scrie niște povești absolut fantastice și dezbate orice subiect în engleză cu argumente potrivite, haz și pricepere. Cu siguranță că și în română. Se vede că are una dintre acele minți pe care AI nu o va putea cuceri, corupe sau clona – lucru pentru care îi adresăm felicitări și mult succes în viitor!

„My Grandpa’s first name is Anton, he is almost 72 now, and he used to be a Maths teacher in a small town in southern Romania. Now he is retired and spends most of his time waiting for the Government to increase his pension, for the world to change the direction where it’s heading, for the people to remember what respect means – but I think most of all he waits for his dear ones to visit him, and for these visits that happen once or twice a year he is struggling to keep his household in perfect order.

Since Grandma, Miorița, passed away, Grandpa Anton lives alone in a huge, detached house, surrounded by a nice garden and a little orchard. Nevertheless, he has company – a dog named Grivei, two cats (Mormorica and Priki) and some chicken. Unfortunately, some things have changed dramatically in his town, as most of the people he knew passed or moved away, so Grandpa feels isolated among strangers. Even some of the people he knew became mean-spirited – arrogant, selfish and greedy. But there are also people who still respect and greet my Grandpa Anton.

Grandpa Anton has a daily routine which he respects devotedly – every morning, he goes jogging at the stadium, in order to keep in shape. Then, he returns home to feed the animals and take care of his garden. Afterwards, Grandpa goes to the market to buy fresh fruit and vegetables. He loves BIO food – he thinks that the supermarkets sell too much processed food, which is bad for health. Besides his healthy lifestyle, Grandpa Anton keeps his mind sharp by solving crosswords and Sudoku. When I don’t know how to solve a Maths problem, I ask him, and I get amazed by his logical thinking and ingenious solutions.

Now, I know that I should be writing about some act of bravery of Grandpa Anton, but which one should I choose? When he saved his father-in-law’s life, by performing CPR when everybody had lost hope? When he won a swimming competition against three young men, each of them about half his age? When he faced a pack of wild dogs alone, and managed to leave unharmed? Or maybe the fact that he taught Maths to generations of students, who still hold him in great esteem for this? Or better yet the fact that he never backed down, despite his heart condition that affected him from a young age?

But I suppose it would not be enough – for me, Grandpa Anton is brave for whom he was, he is and will be for as long as God will still allow him on this Earth. And every day, he does something wonderful – for instance, yesterday he went to the cemetery, and tied a Mărțișor string around Grandma’s cross, as he has done every year on the 24th of February since she had passed away. And he does this kind of things every day. No exception.

Now, I would like to end this story on a cheerful note. Grandpa Anton does not understand English – he studied Russian, but those were different times. So, when I get to visit him once in a while and since he knows that I attend English courses at FollowMe, each time I hand over to him the present I brought, he replies: ‘Thank you very good!’ – he is so funny, that I do not have the heart to correct him. :)”.

Foto: Maria Georgescu