The simple things

As the rest of the World, I am stuck at home in a sort of self-quarantine. I am in Barcelona, where I came for work, and I am unable to go back to my home town, where my family lives.

I took this time alone to reflect on several things and I really want, once this chaos is over, enjoy that little simple daily life actions that, in a normal situation, I would not even notice.

Family

I am terrified for what is happening in Italy, I have my family there and I cannot go back to stay close to them. My mother is one of the subject at high risk since she has diabetes and heart problems, my brother in law had a liver transplant and his son, my Godson, had meningitis plus he suffer from a mild form of psoriasis. I have trouble sleeping at night and I keep having nightmares. I know I am not the only one in this situation, but I realise how much I love my family and how, sometimes, I have been selfish thinking about myself. Like making a plane ticket the day before and go travel somewhere around the world, while maybe my family needed me there. I know this sounds like a real Italian thing but yes, I do love my family more than anything else in this world. I can’t wait to be there and stay with them.

Walking

I like walking, I have this app that tracks my steps and I usually take my 10.000 steps a day. When I use to do my walk, I never noticed the environment around me, trees, lakes etc. Next walk I want to really take the time to look around and enjoy the beauty of our mother nature.

Pizza

I want to go to te restaurant and have a pizza, like a big one and I want it super spicy. I want to have a pizza with my family and another with my colleagues. Yes I want a huge spciy pizza, the one that you can find only down in the south of Italy.

Friends

I am in constant touch with Bram and Dan, two friends I met in Barcelona in 2009 and since then we have been always in touch through whatsapp. I realise how important is to have friends you can talk to during moment like this. And yes I miss them, and can’t wait to organise a new reunion somewhere in Europe. I also call everyday with Filippo, my best friend, he is in Switzerland and we keep supporting each other, since we have both families down there, in the so-called red zone.

Community

During the years, my country and my region have lost that sense of community that was characteristic here in the south. During these days, we are understanding how important is to help each other, we are recovering that sense of community that was lost, mostly due to politics manipulation that is better not to talk about. I really hope people will understand how meaningless and useless is to judge someone for where they come from, how they dress or their skin color.

Solidarity

My home town is a red zone, the problem is that our hospital, and the ones near by, don’t have the capacity and equipment to deal with a situation like this. Lombardy, the richest region in Italy and the one with the best health system has collapsed, imagine what would happen if Calabria is hit so hard. Yes it is terrifying. In just few days the entire community made a fundraiser and we raised enough money to buy 4 ventilators to help those who will need them. I think this is the most awesome thing happened since the corona virus breach.

I am lucky

I have been working remotely for over 3 years, I am not new to it. I work in IT, that means also that I can work from anywhere I want,. Probably I won’t lose my job and I have a salary that gives me the opportunity to help my family in this moment of needs.

I am lucky, damn it if I am. Many times I thought how much I fought to get to this point, countless hours on google learning about programming, I always thought I deserved my “fortune”, but now, looking at how many of my friends (and family) are going to lose their job, I can just say that I am extremely lucky. Sure I deserved it, but so many people in this world could not even afford a computer or an internet connection. I have now full awareness of how lucky I am.

So yes, as soon as this shitty situation is over, I will go back to my home town and have a huge party with my family, then I will call Bram and Dan to organise our reunion, and finally will go to meet Filippo and have some fun with my best friend.

These are hard moments I know, we are all scared by what is happening, but we are all together in this, and this is the moment to reflect and to understand that we have only one life, we have only one earth and the World is one. We are all together in this, and I hope we will be again all together also when we will be back to enjoy our good moments.

My father was an inspiring man, he was (and still is) my greatest inspiration. He lived a simple life and he dedicated his (very short) life to the family and the community. I am lucky to have had him as a father, and I am sure that I will be back, one day, to enjoy the little simple things in life, like he did and taught me.

Stay safe, stay home, stay healthy.