The Journey of Your Life: Coronavirus and Other Catastrophes

“What did the coronavirus come to teach us?” I constantly ask myself as we survive the whirlwind of events.

I’m a Microbiologist, I do not exercise, but what one learns is never forgotten. In biology, a virus is a microscopic infectious agent, which can only multiply within the cells of other organisms. This COVID-19 needs our cells to reproduce.

We are all made up of cells, no matter what race we are or what country we live in.

I’m a traveler too, and perhaps because I know people close to my heart in many places on the planet, I see the world in a more intertwined way. I started hearing about this virus thanks to friends in Shanghai and Singapore, when it was not that famous yet, just before Chinese New Year. Today, almost three months later, I’m in Spain, in complete isolation, with the pubs closed, an event that I never thought I would see in this country. I’m very sorry to write this, but it was coming.

We are connected more than we think, that’s right, ladies and gentlemen, what happens in China is not indifferent to us and never has been.

My first encounter with a global impact event was in Madrid, in March 2004, when the terrorist attack in Atocha happened.

I remember perfectly that day. I lived with my roommates, Inma and Javi, who they left earlier than me. I was having breakfast alone when I received a message from Javi: “the trains don’t work, something happened in Atocha, use the bus”. That “something happened in Atocha” was the most horrible attack I have had to live through. I arrived at the laboratory, and everyone commented about that a terrorist attack had occurred.

I phoned my mother in Argentina and my boyfriend in the United States, I told them that it was fine, not knowing that it would be a really sad day. After an hour or two, the phone lines collapsed, and they became useless.

The laboratory was always lively and bustling, but that day we all worked in silence, with the radio on and listening with a tight knot in our stomachs as the death toll increased every hour.

When people had the head to think who did it, television and the government in power leaned towards the terrorist group ETA. I remember my boyfriend saying to me: “here in the United States they are saying that it could have been Al-Qaeda”, I mentioned that and nobody heard me. Soon it was established that Al-Qaeda was responsible for the attack.

Don’t believe everything the media says. Searching for the right information is our responsibility, do not completely trust politicians, nor in a single media. Thanks for existing, Internet!

Another event of great significance that I have had to witness up close was in Paris, in 2015. Paris was not the same after the attack on the Charly Hebdo newspaper.

We were enjoying that wonderful city and in less than two minutes the shootings lasted, everything changed. Armed police on the streets, security everywhere. I did not speak much French, and I turned on the TV, did not understand what was happening, the brain always decides to think that it is a movie.

I was studying French with a wonderful Parisian teacher in one of those magical places in Paris: Brasserie Le Vigny. She, this brasserie, the waiters, and those classes were my window to that country. We went to class after the incident, the atmosphere in the place was dense, sadly quite everyone looks at the TV. Whit visible pain she said to me: “They are French against French, why?”

Extremist ideas reached young brains in other countries and caused damage for generations. All extremes are bad. Nothing is so absolute and nobody is completely right.

Let’s be more flexible and empathetic, what happens there, will come here and vice versa, we all live on the same planet and we are connected.

Inform yourself with various sources, analyze the information, and help your neighbor.

Your ideas are valid but not unique, try to reconcile. Humanity has resisted and will continue to resist; it is an intelligent and constantly evolving species.

A hug, (from afar) and see you soon.

Paola

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