On a loft, inside a forgotten bag and among the notebooks I kept as keepsakes, I unexpectedly found a little notebook of essays by my classmate Thomouli Karabampa.

Faint letters and scattered phrases made up the book of my unforgettable friend, whose fate dictated that he "left" early. And when I struggled to read the first little essays, memories rushed within me, and I felt a sacred duty to bring them to light.

Through the innocent yet lively perspective of that child, the entire era of post-war Greece in the '50s is sketched. I will always remember the teacher bursting into laughter as she proudly read Thomouli's little essays, as well as the huge tens that adorned his name.