I have been drafting for days how to start my writing journey
and I have to admit that due to many things happening at the same time around me
my mind was very distracted until I received a text from my dear friend Karen.
So, I decided to take a moment to think about myself and do what I love most. Since then, I decided to make space in my
mind and feel free of worry. I’d start to build sentences late at night or in
the shower and, right away, I began to take notes and here I am writing down my
eloquent ideas.
I never thought that my first formal work of writing would
be in English, and I say formal
because it is expected to be published and I am used to posting some shorter
pieces on my social media account. This is different, however, and special not
just because it is my first long writing in English, but it is also special
because my friend Karen brought an idea to me and God miraculously filled my
mind with a lot of wonderful ideas.
I know this moment is hard for everybody. Presently, we
all are facing the same enemy. The whole world is fighting to try to put the
adversary out of our lives. I think at this point you know perfectly what I am
talking about. Yes… the novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID 19). No one is spared
from this reality; however, as I cannot speak for you, my reader, I am going to
speak about how I have been seeing and living this new reality.
I began watching a TV show where references about the
situation in others countries were made, and I would always take it lightly
because it was what other people were facing and fighting by themselves. Months
ago I never thought that the same enemy would make presence in this country and
I don’t think the TV show host did either. Maybe, we both were just watching
from the other side and making our own conjectures. I do not watch TV very
often, but that show is really entertaining for me and my son so we always
watch it together whenever we have free time. I feel that it has built a deeper
connection between us. He waits for me to watch it while I take my lunch or any
other moment of the day or week. We laugh together and we discuss about what we
are watching to make our own conclusion. Then everything changed in my mind
when I started to learn that the monster that other countries have been fighting
was already in the country where I am living. Not long after, it became a part
of the conversations between my son and I. I made some references to my son
about the situation I shared with him my point of view letting him have some
space to think for himself about what is actually happening around the world.
I have to be honest, my perspective on the Coronavirus
is a mixture on the facts that are out there and my personal opinions that make
the situation more fun. You’re
probably asking yourself, why fun? Well, as I said before my son and I have
built a relationship over this show, but part of that relationship is based in
sharing wonderful moments (good or bad) together, supporting each other, and
giving the best of each other. In our
case, watching that TV show is a fun part, but there are other fun things that
we share. We both are fans of the European soccer team FC Barçelona. We love to watch soccer. We love to eat
ice cream together. We love movies especially Marvel movies… hahaha yes, we
both love Marvel superhero movies. We share and do more fun things, but I want
to stop with movies. I remember, days ago, I related the Coronavirus situation
to the last two Avengers movies (Avengers Infinity War and Endgame). I do not know
if some of you have watched those already it maybe would be a great moment to
watch those. I recommend watching all of the movies that are part of the Marvel
Cinematic Universe (MCU) if you want to discover the whole picture and see how
they all connect, but please do not be disappointed if some things do not make
sense or if you expect more or less from the super heroes. I am still
discovering that universe because I believe that each person needs to experience
it in their own way. I am a Star Wars
and MCU fan, but unlike other fans, I don’t go crazy about what happened in a
scene, what should happen or shouldn’t happen in the next movie, what the writers
or director should do, or any other crazy things that some fans think or do for
those movies. I try to enjoy my fan experience, watching the movies eating popcorn
and letting my mind fly inside that universe. Okay…that’s enough description
about what I love from those movies and the kind of fan that I am.
As I said, I associated the Coronavirus
with Thanos, one of the characters in the Avengers movie that I mentioned
before. I associated our reality with the Avengers Infinity War and Endgame movies.
In those movies Thanos is a genocidal warlord from a fictional world Titan,
whose main objective is to bring stability to the universe and of course he has
his own theory about how he can achieve that goal. He sets out to collect 6
powerful infinity stones in the universe - The
Space Stone (blue), the Reality Stone (red), the Power Stone (purple), the Mind
Stone (yellow), the Time Stone (green) and the Soul Stone (orange) – and he wants
to use their collective power to turn half population in the universe into
dust with just one snap in order to stop overpopulation and scarcity of
resources.
-
I have been watching news
about Coronavirus and how the numbers of people infected are increasing day by
day, but also I watch a troop of healthcare professionals always ready to serve
the public.
-
I watch people follow the
advice of professional and government because they want the best for them and
others around them, but also I watch people ignoring the whole situation just
because they feel invincible or immune to any kind of fatality showing that
they do not care about anything around them.
-
I watch people helping each
other and trying to spread love rather than fears even though they must be frightened
too.
-
I watch kindness in the
whole world, but also I watch people buying everything that they think need to
keep safe and forgetting about other that also need food and protection to feel
safe too.
-
I see many workers
outside serving the community, but also I watch people discriminating others because
they are afraid of so many things.
-
I see many workers
working in their houses although it is not comfortable because many of them are
not ready to set an office in their homes or having problems to concentrate in
their jobs while millions of things are happening around them, but I see also many
others that are unemployed or incapable to perform a job for different
circumstances.
-
I see many students
taking online classes, teachers and in general all education forces doing their
best to bring a better future to our world.
-
I see volunteers
spreading hope to others.
I could tell you many other bad or
good things that have been happening for the last months, weeks, or days during
this pandemic stage, but I am hoping that you can keep these in mind and that
we all are one world and all together need to do something drastic. We must change
the way that we have been living and start to build a better world for all of
us.
I believe that during times of crisis
we can discover who we are and what we are capable to do. We realize who cares
about us and how much we can do to care for others. We figure out what we can
do to live a better life and enjoy this life, the only one that we have, with
our loved ones. We make the
decisions we believe are best to live happy with ourselves. We decide on what
actions we need to take in order to achieve our goals and dreams. We should
be thankful and practice showing kindness to this world and live cohesively on our
planet.
I trust
that we can all assemble like the Avengers do against Thanos. We will do “Whatever
It Takes” to overcome this very hard moment in our history and use the Coronavirus Disease as a lesson to learn
from all the mistakes (and what we have done right) to beat this together.
Finally, I would like to end this
writing with a quote that was forged many years ago during one of the darkest
moment in my life and since that day until now it is still present.
Live to dream. Dream to live. Each dream is a hope and a path
to follow. God gives us the opportunity to make our dreams become true if we work
hard every day for it. Be patient and do not be worry about the time that it takes.
Until the next dream,
Vivimos para soñar. Soñamos para vivir. Cada sueño es una
esperanza, un camino a seguir. Dios nos da la oportunidad de levantarnos día a
día para trabajar por nuestros sueños y esperar con paciencia lo anhelado. El
tiempo que te lleve verlos materializados, que no te preocupe
Duvraska Mendoza
