My name is Mattia, I was born in 1994 in Montebelluna, in the province of Treviso, where my parents worked. At the age of three, my parents decided to leave. So my childhood happily spent in Francofonte, in the province of Syracuse. Which is what I call my "home". After graduation I went away again, alone, leaving mom and dad.
I went to L'Aquila, a beautiful city, still wounded.
There I graduated in Medical Imaging Radiology Techniques and Radiotherapy. The degree gave me enough satisfaction. But not so much that I stopped studying and then I also took a master's degree.
Then I went home.
Today I work in Catania, I am a TSRM, medical radiology technician. As a child I wanted to be a footballer though.
What we do is not a walk in the park.
Staying cold to certain diagnoses and patient medical histories is a struggle. But I'm working on mine poker face. It is not insensitivity, it is that in front of the relatives of those who are in so much pain it is good not to overbalance. The 'their' good, I mean. A misplaced look or word can hurt, even if it's indulgent looks or words. Maybe even more. Hopes must be able to be handled with caution.
With caution, in a low voice, I say that today satisfied with me. Not all of my credit, luck made his. A lot, I suspect. I have always been given the means to do what I wanted. A monument to dad and mom I'll have to do sooner or later.
2020 was a surreal year. I never thought I'd have to spend so many days indoors. Powerless. Unlike the others, I was able to work, but I noticed the thinning out of human relationships. Almost canceled in two months. We will have to learn everything from scratch. The we is a complicated pronoun. It is a heritage that we must cultivate well. We must begin to deal, together, with tomorrow.
But maybe I preach well and scratch badly, because today my thoughts are inevitably all in the present. And the biggest, let me, is for my girlfriend. I have been separated from for months. I am a human being after all.
And tomorrow I would like to continue to be.
