“Anything new I learn has its own interest,” says Mr Vassilis Panagiotaropoulos. “My presence here opens the mind”, as he says in Guardian.

It’s 7:45 in the evening. The bell has just rung in yet another classroom and the classical world of ancient Greece is ready to welcome the excited retiree, who has taken out his case of books, spreading them out on a small wooden desk.

In his dark suit and polished shoes, Mr. Panagiotaropoulos is not only the most elegant figure in a room, the back wall of which is covered with graffiti, but he is also by far the oldest student of the 2nd night school in Athens. It is indicative that at least half of his classmates are the same age as his grandchildren.

Almost 70 years have passed since the 80-year-old Vassilis went to school for the last time.

“I left when I was 12 to help my father in the fields,” he explains, recalling his childhood years of innocence from his village in the Peloponnese. “But in my mind and soul I always longed to go back to the desks. It is a desire that has never left me.”

When he turned 80, the former tavern keeper confided in his wife Maria, a retired tailor, that he had made the decision to make this wish of his come true. After almost 5 decades working as a cook and maintaining his own business, in Athens (“hard work, hard life”), he finally crossed the threshold of the 2nd night school last year.

Today he is enrolled in a class that a 15-year-old would normally take, a thought that causes his face to “light up” with a big smile before bursting into laughter. “Oh, to be 15 again,” she says. “I always had this dream of soaking up all knowledge, but I never thought the day would come when I would actually live it.”

Panagiotaropoulos’ life-changing decision went viral when he led a school parade as a flag bearer to celebrate the October 28th anniversary. He was filmed proudly marching over Syntagma Square.

“He was given the honor of holding the Greek flag because he was the best student in the class,” says Evangelia Pateraki, the school’s principal. “She is extremely diligent and offers so much to the other students. It’s very moving to see people who didn’t have the same opportunity and had to work, go back to school. And it’s also a life lesson. I went and studied abroad, my children went to university and got good jobs. You take these for granted until you meet those who didn’t have such possibilities.”

In a nation whose population is projected to shrink drastically over the next 25 years, the retiree’s decision has some resonance. By 2050, around 35% of Greece’s population will be over 65, according to Eurostat.

“In societies like ours where life expectancy is increasing, it sends a message to people of a similar age that it’s never too late in life,” says Dr. Pavlos Baltas, a demographer at the National Center for Social Research.

“But it also helps those who are younger to deal with ageism.”