The whole world will remember it.

“End of the state of emergency, back to normality?”

It was March 2020. There had been news of a virus from China for a few months, but no one could imagine what would happen shortly thereafter. Contagions were increasing day by day and people were dying: for that reason, the government decided on a lock-down. Suddenly, we all found ourselves at home because we did not go to school or work and we could not go out except for shopping. The first few days felt like we took a short vacation from school, we did not have virtual classes and we could only communicate through WhatsApp.

I was in eighth grade. I had to take the final exam and I had recently started going out with my friends and classmates. We often went out for a pizza or met at each other’s house to play and study together and then, all of a sudden, there was no more room for these things! I only remember a lot of anxiety, the fear of contagion, the fear of going out. Two whole years have passed between openings and closures, distance learning, masks, sanitizers, and green pass. Now, the state of emergency has ended and we will finally return to normality, but what will “normality” be like? There is still the fear that what has happened may repeat itself. I know that masks will no longer be mandatory but I will continue to wear one whenever I find myself around others.

After two very long years, the first thing I was able to do was to celebrate my birthday with my relatives. I finally felt like I was reliving a little bit of normality. Another thing that I always loved and will start doing again once possible is traveling: for one, I will be in Milan where I will be able to visit the Museum of Science and Technology, the Duomo, and go to all the places I like.

I know it will take some time to get back to living life as before and to start all over again as if nothing has happened. It will not be easy to forget the unreal silence of those days, the images of the large deserted cities, the incessant sound of sirens, the rows of army vehicles that transported corpses for which there was no more room in cemeteries, the closed schools, and remote classes. I know that I should be calm, and I would like to be, but I will have to recover all the things that I could have done in these two years and have not done and find the security that I do not feel.

The days will return to being full of different commitments, hobbies, and meetings, and finally, the hours will pass, they will no longer seem immobile the way they did months ago. I hope that everything will continue to flow peacefully as before, but I know that I will remember this period for a lifetime. The whole world will remember it.