dal15al25.gazzetta.it/2023/02/10/paola-a-sanreno/Egonu's monologue at the San Remo Music Festival.
Machine translation.I am not here tonight to give life lessons, because at my age there are more things I can learn than I can teach.
I try to glean a lesson from each day, and that has been the case in the weeks leading up to the Festival.
Often in the past I have been called hermetic, so over time I have made an effort to tell myself more, trying to minimize the space for interpretation. However, this has not prevented some sentences from being ripped out of context, cut, pasted in a random sense, and slingshotted into newspapers as headlines used to make noise.
I learned that every thought, once it turns into words and is shared with someone, is no longer under the full control of the person who uttered it. This reminded me that we should always try to trace the origin.
I am the first of three siblings, and I owe everything to Mother Eunice and Father Ambrose. 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 fear of sacrifice. They helped me find my path, even if it meant for them to see me leave home at age 13.
I'm not a mother, I dream of becoming one someday, but I'm sure no parent is happy for their child to grow up away from their love and their gaze.
Thank you mom, thank you dad, who out of love for me, you gave up on me. Of course, I missed and continue to miss your caresses and attention. But I knew, we knew and I know that this is my path.
You know, as a child I was obsessed with "why".
Why am I tall?
Why does my grandfather live in Nigeria?
Why do they ask me if I am Italian?
Then I got older and the whys continued.
Why do I feel different?
Why do I experience this as guilt?
Why did I punish myself every time by giving a wrong version of myself?
Over time I realized that this diversity of mine is my uniqueness.
And that in the question "Why am I me???" there is already also the answer: "Because I AM ME!!!"
I AM THAT when I am still asked a question about racism today, I answer like this:
"Take glasses of various colors and put water in them. You will see that most people will choose the clear glass, just because its contents are clearer. Yet if you try to drink from one of the colored glasses, you will find that the water always tastes the same, fresh and life-like..." because we are all the same beyond appearances.
And if that is still not enough...in the Veneto region we would say "Moeghea" i.e. "Come on, stop it!"
I AM THAT to whom sport has given so much.
But I AM ALSO THE ONE who does not believe that defeat is only when you lose a game. When I am on the field and I make too many mistakes, even if we win, it can happen that I experience it as a defeat.
I play attack and my goal is to be able to get the decisive ball in my hands to dunk, the one that will score. Sometimes I succeed, sometimes I fail and I am learning to accept the mistake.
Because that hot ball, that scary ball, is why in fact I am there.
I AM THE ONE who also gets criticized.
Criticism has never been lacking and will not be lacking, it is inevitable: some of it is constructive, most of it gratuitous, some of it - and I don't want to play the victim - is a real boulder.
I - with difficulty - have learned that it is up to us to give them their due weight.
I AM THE ONE who, like everyone else, has had to face bad times but has not stopped enjoying the good ones because of it. I have been accused of victimhood, of dramatizing, and of having no respect for my country. And this is for recounting bad experiences that I have gone through, for showing my weaknesses and fears for the future.
I love Italy, I proudly wear that blue jersey that for me is the most beautiful in the world, and I have a deep sense of responsibility for this country in which I place all my hopes for tomorrow.
I AM THE ONE who has often missed important appointments. Indeed, in my history as a player, there are more finals I have lost than finals I have won. Yet that does not make me a loser. Just as it does NOT make one a loser who gets the lowest grade in school, and it does not make one a loser who fails to achieve his or her dream on the first shot.
Besides, since this is Sanremo, it is not a loser either who comes in the last positions in the rankings....
Do you remember that? It was 1983 when Vasco Rossi came second to last on this very stage..
Another NON-LOSER, who taught us that from the hardest defeats can come the greatest successes.
EACH WITH HIS OWN JOURNEY. EACH DIFFERENT.