FINDING A SENSE THROUGH SENSES

by Susanna Catellani

When we started this project, in 2018, life was normal. We went to school every day, we played sports, we met our friends regularly. When we started this project we were extremely enthusiastic at the idea of getting to know new people, who lived different lives in different countries and were as excited as we were of living this experience. 

“Finding a sense through senses” seemed, at the time, just a nice and funny slogan that we kept repeating for whatever reason. However, we only understood the real meaning of this sentence in 2020, when everything changed, including our way of “sensing” life. 

Taste. Someone once said “To love is to eat together” and I (as an Italian who also appreciates other cultures’ food) believe that truer words have never been said. 

But covid took it away from us.  

Smell. The comforting smell of coffee in the school’s hallways, the exciting smell of the air of a new place, that hits you the very moment you exit the airport, the surprising smell of a food you have never tried before, the strong smell (hopefully scent) of a person you have just met. And covid took them away from us. 

Hearing. I remember distinctly the silence that invaded the streets during the first months of lockdown, that strange feeling of being the only person in the world, closed in your house. 

Sight. We used to look at each other, at our faces, our bodies, our outfits. This pandemic changed this aspect too: masks now cover our faces, and computers let us show only a part of our bodies, so that we will never really know how the other is. 

Covid took sight away from us.

Touch. I would be lying if I said that this was not the part that changed the most. For almost two years now, we have been afraid of touching everything, from objects, to food, to other people. Banal and ordinary gestures, shaking hands, hugs, kisses, high fives, became suddenly forbidden and we came to be afraid of the other. Afraid of the unknown, of the stranger, of the foreign. But maybe, we just had to find the courage. In fact, in these last months, thanks to this project, we understood how to keep in “touch” with each other, if not physically, at least emotionally and culturally. We learnt how to be together from far away and that we still had a lot to teach each other. Despite all the negative aspects, in these months we have not only improved our digital skills (that we proudly showed on the platform), but also became more empathetic and sensitive. We understood that it does not matter if our cultures are different (luckily), weirdly original (luckily) or even shocking sometimes, as long as we keep thinking of ourself as one and only community, we will be okay and no virus, pandemic (or even alien, as long as I am concerned) will ever separate us. 

Susanna Catellani

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