My runner’s friends

I have been running for many years. When I finished school I we couldn’t play basketball anymore, I started running along the Diagonal. Of course, after so many years I have become familiar to some people that, as I do, go out running or walking early in the morning.

‘My best friend’ is this old man who worked for a bank. He is from a small village in Burgos and you can see him walking every morning in his red trousers and green jersey. He is a very nice person. Now he can’t run because he has been operated, but he walks as fast as he can. I remember that during a few months I didn’t see him and I was worried about him, but, fortunately, he is ok.

Lately, I have spoken a few times with another old man that likes to walk. He always asks me about my running shoes and he explains me that he goes to Collserola... I hope he is ok because I haven’t seen him for a while.

I have more friends: another runner that always says hello to me; a very tall man that has a very elegant way of running. I also know ‘Diagonal’, this man who goes running to his job and also participates in some races and, of course, Núria, my teacher in fifth year, that is nearly 60 and you can see her running every morning at 6.30am. There is another woman that was the volleyball trainer in my school that also goes running every morning. I even see Albert Batlle, a politician who did a lot for Espanyol.

After so many years, every morning I see the same faces. Even though they are not my real friends, they are people I miss if I don’t see them and I think what has happened to them. When you go running after so many years, you create your own universe and create some nice relationships with other persons.

These things can’t happen

On Saturday I woke up and read this piece of news. Once I finished, I really felt sorry for that eight year old child. Children can be very cruel and they don’t have any problem to go against that person who is different or has different ideas. I really think it is terrible that kind of behaviour, and I am sure parents are responsible because children of that age usually repeat what they listen at home or hear from their parents.

Poor girl! Espanyol supporters are used to these type of things, but when you get to an age, it doesn’t affect you too much. However, I imagine that for an eight year old girl it has to be really terrible.

There are few things I would like to point out. First of all, I think it will not be fair that we say that in Catalonia Espanyol supporters live apartheid. Some of my best friends are FC Barcelona supporters and I don’t have any problems with them. I have always been the only perico supporter until I got to University and I didn’t have any problem.

It is true that Barcelona supporters are not able to understand what we feel and some of the situations that we live are totally unfair, but I do believe in respect. The good thing of being perico is that you grow stronger and, in a way, you become special but I also think that you can find stupid persons irrelevant which team they support.

What I really think that is disappointing and terrible is the teacher’s reaction. “They are only kids”. How can a teacher say that? He should address to all the class and explain that people are free to support any team they want, that it doesn’t make you worst or better and he should tell them that in life there are different opinions and feelings and all of them are respectable.

In this case, we are talking about football, but this is an example for many situations in life. I know that they are young; however, we have to build a society where everybody respects the other. What will these children think about someone gay? Or someone that doesn’t believe in a independent Catalonia?

As I said I haven’t had any problem for being an Espanyol supporter. It is something I am proud of and I always say when I talk about football. However, I am worried because I think that many times the big majorities forget that there are a lot of people that do not think alike and, in this sense, parents and teachers have a very important rol because they have to teach and explain that one of the best things in life is to find people who have other feelings thoughts or views.

It is true that lately if you are not with the majority you feel alone and IT shouldn’t be like that. In a world that is getting more and more global, people should be more open minded and respect the other. As you can read in the article, we have a lot of work to do.