Once upon a time, I was studying Physics at the local university. There I quickly realized a few things:

• it wasn’t going to be as difficult as i thought it would – but at the same time, it wouldn’t be rewarding either (perhaps that’s a … greek thing)
• it was easy to make out the best students and see their hard work
• i met a few geniuses that seemed to … just grasp things without much effort and also seemed to just … never study

The best example that fits into the last category was Alexis Alexiou – he wouldn’t generally participate in the lectures/classes, but he always knew what was going on + answers, e.t.c. Plus, I had the pleasure of doing labs with him (Physics III,IV, Nuclear, Astronomy to name a few). We’d also hang out and play basketball, watch thrillers and it was obvious that he was a cinema addict but in my mind, he would go on to be a brilliant physicist – after all, already from the end of the 3rd year (out of 4) he had passed all the courses needed to get the diploma!

Imagine my shock when he decided to drop out of Physics and concentrate on (apparently) his true love, cinema. But, it was the right thing to do. I remember helping him make his first short film… we used my brother’s recording camera (and i was terribly handling it) and my father’s 4-head VCR for editing / postproduction! We produced a cover for the video tape and he made quite a few copies to pass around (i think i have the uncut versions somewhere, perhaps they’ll be worth millions??!)

Alexis then signed up in a private school for movie making, e.t.c. and i eventually lost track of him – though i’d always bump on him at plateia mavilis

Anyway, his first long movie is now being shown on cinemas in Athens and so i just wanted to wish all the best to him and his career… well done Alexis (i’d still beat you in basketball though!)