Love in the Time of Coronavirus

Anonymous Student

It’s hard not to compare this moment in life with the one described by the Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez in his book, Love in the Times of Cholera. The story’s about a helpless romantic and deeply sensitive boy named Florentino, who gets his heart broken just when an outbreak of Cholera starts in a coastal city of Colombia and everyone is forced to quarantine.

Just as it happened to the heartbroken protagonist, a few weeks ago, I was also left with lots of unanswered questions, thinking on what I could have done better or what I could have said to all the hurtful comments that came from the person I once cherished the most and thought of as a good friend above all.

The following days it’s hard not to think about yourself as a victim and entitled to get back in the best way possible. In trying to find the right approach to deal with this, I realized that there isn’t probably the right way to get back at this person. Hurtful words have been said and the damage has been done. All I’m left with is the silence that this moment brings. The silence that we need to exist, to try to make sense of life and the way we perceive it. Just as the heartbroken boy from the book, I soon realized that in moments like this, life forces us to reinvent ourselves.

In reinventing ourselves I believe one of the most crucial aspects is resilience. And when thinking about it I think of mangroves, just like the ones from the scenery where the story from the book takes place. Mangroves are probably one of the noblest creatures on planet earth. They grow on the shorelines; they work as barriers to protect coastal populations from damaging storms, hurricane winds, waves and retain floods. But what I particularly find most impressive about them is that their entangled root systems cut the flow of pollutants by filtering them and thus helping maintain water quality and clarity.

I now believe that to move on in life we should emulate mangroves. Aiming at being resilient and cutting the flow of pollutants or in this case, hurtful comments. I’m not sure if karma will handle this. I truly wish him all the best. I like to think that his immaturity played a big role in his hurtful actions. All I know is that forgiveness makes life easier for the one who forgives. And Forgiveness applies not only to the other person but to us as well. This is particularly crucial in a moment like this, that will require all of us to be up to the challenge of helping rebuild our communities when all these is over.

I would like to stress the importance of giving the people that care about you, space and time they deserve. For me, the support from family, friends, flatmates and lectures has been crucial in this process. Thanks for all the kind words, laughter and actions.

Finally, I’ve realized that life has funny ways to teach us lessons and when we are not ready to listen, it goes to extremes to force us to do so. I guess my lesson here was probably not to focus on finding the right person but to be the right person, for myself, to move on.