My Darling Son
by See Change Ambassador, Daniela Ferro
My darling son,
I have been spending the last few days thinking about what I want to tell you about 2020. The year that started a little over two weeks after you rushed into this world.
A world that was so different from what it is now.
As I am writing this, I don’t know if we are heading towards the end of this or if this is just the start. I also don’t know if that potential start could be of something good or something bad.
We are taking every day as the sun rises, we carry on with our restricted lives, in our now very small world and anxiously await the numbers of the day. “We” doesn’t mean just Daddy and myself. “We” as in the whole world. I don’t think I ever felt more connected to the rest of the world while staying away from each other, as this year.
Usually, I would hop on planes more often than its fun, spend countless nights in nice hotels, wishing to be home. Tell you what, this year I am actually missing to be in the security check queue at the airport getting annoyed with the “travel once a year” family in front of me, which is fighting over 200ml bottles of perfume.
Anyways, this year, we stayed at home. All of us. The world turned into sleeping beauty. Planes got dusty, hotels were empty, big cities quiet like in the zombie movies and no laughter and drunken songs coming out of crowded pubs, bars and clubs.
We reduced our lives to what is necessary. The bare minimum. What that is you wonder?
Being at home with our loved ones and going grocery shopping. Yes, that’s pretty much it.
We discovered new or lost sides of ourselves. We became gardeners, hikers, bakers, teachers, artists… Endless possibilities. Rumour has it, some even made it to the end of online media streaming platforms.
And we started to talk more about our feelings, about the anxiety, the feelings of loneliness, about how we really feel. By sharing our common feelings, we became closer than ever while staying further apart than ever.
Our hands became dry from all the washing, facemasks became political statements in some countries, fashion statements in other, “You are on mute” the most familiar sentence while trying to socialise online.
This is usually the time where we think about the year ahead and what we want to change in the new year. Create the xth new version of ourselves. I think we deserve to skip that this year. We made it through 2020. We showed our resilience, our empathy, our care for our communities.
We survived. Bruised and battled but we are still here, and we will stay at home until …well, I don’t know. But I will do anything in my power to ensure that the post pandemic future of us is one I will be proud to have helped forming for you to walk in.
Without facemasks, hugging other people, asking them how they really are and shaking hands.
If you are having a tough time at the moment and need to reach out for support, please contact any of the following
