Filippo: “My first exam at the university without knowing the professor and fellow students”

Dear School,

my name is Filippo and I am 19 years old. I lived the last day of high school without knowing it was the last and I feel like I never really started college. I took the final exams in the middle of a class, with the professors around, without relatives or friends being able to attend; and I took my first university exam via Teams, without ever having met the professor and my classmates in person.

I try to take everything lightly (the one Calvino tells us about), but it’s difficult.

I feel like a fragile teenager, undecided, who desires the future despite the awareness that it is becoming increasingly uncertain: «a boat that yearns for the sea and yet fears it».

Dear School, I believe this is your function: not as a refuge and escape from life, but as an instrument to look at it more deeply, to live more. You teach us to love like poets and to know like scientists, to question ourselves, to ask ourselves questions about the why of things, to open our minds and hearts to reality to welcome all its facets. You invite us to be polite, wise, responsible, selfless, to seek true friendship and genuine and sincere love. In summary, you teach us everything that is worth living for.

Since you are not there, while nobody comes out outside, inside it has become a bit of a mess for everyone. You are what we want for the coming year. We miss you, but maybe it’s also our fault: for too long we have taken you for granted, without realizing that when you take something for granted, you are already losing a little.

Filippo, Piacenza

You can send your letter to the school at the following address: [email protected]. The letters are published in the special Dear School, I am writing to you …