Giulia: “This time I really thought I could go back to school …”

This time I really thought I could go back to school: since the decision was made to reopen the gates on January 7, I was ready and happy to walk through the corridors, to look the professors in the eyes, to laugh with my friends. I was impatient to savor all of this again, which, with every piece of news so uncertain and fleeting, I always miss a little more. Almost every day there is a new and beautiful illusion, immediately shattered by continuous and exhausting second thoughts.

For this I have decided that I can no longer be overwhelmed by the enthusiasm that has welcomed each (non) reopening: we risk losing the strength necessary to remain united anyway.

The strength to bring school back to us, if we cannot go back for now.

Giulia Ruberti, 1F B. Zucchi Classical High School, Monza

Here, again, the same situation: I was convinced that, at the end of the Christmas holidays, I would have had the opportunity to return to a more or less normal school and social life, and instead, once again, we find ourselves in front of a screen black between connection problems and total isolation. I miss commenting on incomprehensible math lessons with my classmate. I miss spending the intermission laughing at absolute nonsense in the company of my closest friends.

I miss the teachers, all of them, even the heaviest ones. I miss being completely mesmerized by the history teacher’s explanation. I miss wandering the corridors aimlessly just to take a walk and have a few words with my best friend. I even miss the endless queue at the machines and then realize I don’t have enough credit on the stick. I mean, I miss school, I miss all those things I’m missing.

Giulia, Virgilio Linguistic High School, Milan

All the letters sent to Dear School, I am writing to you …