My memories between sand and dust

The Beginning - Part 1

Since I was ten years old, or maybe even earlier, the dream that harbored in my heart was to wear camouflage and serve my country, so said it seems a complex thought for a girl of my age, but, let me explain: I was surrounded by soldiers and I have heard those speeches very often. At the time I did not know how to distinguish the various specializations and branches, but that didn't interest me much, I only knew one thing: "I want to wear stars around my neck" which I did for another, stealing some clothes from the house of some of my relatives when I went to visit them, imagine, a ten-year-old girl in the clothes of a man of forty or fifty.

Over the course of time, I talked about it with my parents, strange for them that at my age I already had clear ideas, they thought that this was just the classic game of: "what do you want to do when you grow up", I am convinced of this, after all at their heart they knew that I was resolute, and every time I mentioned the name "Army" or, when I grew up, "parachute", they could feel a shiver of fear running down their backs, they knew well what risks I could face, me they confessed it not many years ago.

Luckily at the time, the army did not welcome women, so they were relatively quiet until one-day news of network director made this announcement:

On 20 October 1999, with law number 380, Italy will align itself with the NATO countries by opening the Armed Forces to female recruitment.

From that day on, my parents changed. They tried to keep it hidden from me as much as possible and to kill every speech involved in such a life path. I passed the middle and elementary schools with poor grades, so I enrolled in the classical high school: "Kate, what are you doing? It's not a suitable school for you", "Oh yes, mom, you'll see!".I only had three years of school ahead of me, weird right? But I still didn't know, of course. My plan was simple: finish high school with a high grade and enlist, the commitment I put into the study proved this statement right, in fact, my school diary was as follows for three years:


wake up at 06:22;

city ​​bus at 06:30;

suburban bus at 07:00;

at school at 07:30;

lessons start: 08:00;

lunch break at 12:00 or 13:00 according to the daily timetable;

back to school around 2.30 pm;

I study in the library at the school until 7:00 pm now that I had set out to go home;

dinner at 20:30;

study until 11 pm;

bed.

The routine was repeated every morning but it was tiring, I accumulated about one day of absence a week, which means that every year I was almost at the limit of failing, of the maximum two hundred days of absence I could touch 160 hours, who could resist with this roadmap?
The first year I called it: "orientation", it certainly did not pass as quickly as I now see the years pass in front of me, but anyway, I had to grit my teeth, year after year and so I did also for the second and third. In those years, information technology began to take hold in people's daily lives, the connection passed from the 46k modem to the ADSL line: a phenomenal thing for the time; this gave me the opportunity to inform myself and find a way to make that childhood dream come true, and so I did.


Browsing through the various pages of the web I found a site, indeed, the site of the military academy, my eyes lit up, there was only one problem, I was a minor, I asked myself "how to do?".

"Prof? Prof?", One day towards the middle of the school year, I presented myself in front of the office of the director of my high school, banging the door vigorously with both fists, almost breaking it down and knocking it down. I was forcibly welcomed, and, strange chance, for once, I went there without being called by the secretariat, which, moreover, the employees and the principal came out of their offices to see who was making that deafening noise: "Obviously Kate" they said in the choir.

The bewildered face of the elderly director with the mustache yellowed by the cigars stared at me with wide eyes in that obvious irreverence. His gaze and the kicks on his ass could speak more than anything else. He said to me in a paternal, authoritarian and sweet tone, as only he was able to mix with experience: "Kate, what have you done now?". I did not answer him since I realized too late my irreverence in being welcomed, in fact, my face turned red, I only handed him a sheet of paper with the words "Teuliè Military Academy" and the telephone number of the secretariat, to follow, the names of my parents and their telephone number, data that of course he already knows. Came out of my lips a faint: "please".

The policy of the academy is as follows: "at the end of the third year of high school, it is possible to complete the cycle of studies at the academy and graduate", here, this is the first step to making my dream come true.

"Are you sure, kate?" I, without hesitation, approached a hand to the floor, bending towards the ground, and said: "since I was so tall". The other hand reached for the phone on his desk and I approached it almost throwing down the papers and pens on that precious wooden table.

I remember he didn't say anything, he just called my parents and asked for an interview with them, an immediate interview, just time to get them to school. Even today I ask myself: "who knows what they thought in receiving such a call from the school".