13th of November the world was held awake to the tones of a requiem.
I woke up 11.30pm after a too long nap – entered Instagram and saw #prayforparis. The notion of what had happened came crashing down, then; ‘Anna is in Paris‘. My fingers rapidly found Anna among the messages and texted her “ANNA ARE YOU OKEY?!”.
She replied within 10 seconds. During those 10 seconds my eyes teared up, grief flushed over me, and then, a response, then; relief.
We were the fortunate ones, whilst others will never experience the same relief, only grief.
Fast forward to Saturday night. My class and I were to celebrate the Indian Diwali Festival. We met in the apartment and although it felt wrong to “party” we all had come for the same reason: to be united, to feel the presence of others, to feel love in times of horror.
The conversations were circling the same subjects: EU politics, Swedish politics, South American politics, war, Syria, what should be done? How must things change? and the big “WHY”.
I felt a sense of responsibility, we are the young ones, we are the future, we are the ones who need to make the changes we want to see. Through all times young adults have been demonstrating on the streets, protesting against everything that is wrong and for all that is supposed to be right.
Yet, I remain quiet in my bubble of safety, together with many others.
I could dwell in “the why” of that for a long time, but in the end it does not matter, what matters is to react and then act.
Now, as always, life continues, but in a changed manner.
The world is covered by a cloud of threat.
Josie Mattsson 