by WP64 Mon Mar 09, 2020 3:36 pm
Well, first of all it is unlikely that they are able to contain the virus anytime soon. They have effectively put one-fourth of the country into complete lockdown. Bologna, where I was living, is about forty kilometers from the affected areas but even there basically everything is closed down. My friends send me pictures everyday of the streets and it is basically deserted during the day. All non-essential travel is strongly discouraged. Even taking these drastic measures, it is unlikely that they will be able to entirely contain the spread of the virus and the only short-term hope is that the summer weather will temporarily kill it off..
For a bunch of complicated reasons, I am still unable to re-claim my Italian citizenship. I only have one more possible solution before I have exhausted all my options. Without citizenship or a visa, I would only be able to stay in the country for three months at a time. I had applied to Johns Hopkins SAIS and was admitted, which would have meant at least one additional year in Bologna (with a student visa) and then one year in Washington D.C. I had spent the last several months talking to students, attending informal guest lectures at the campus, and basically getting myself mentally and financially prepared to accept their offer. Last week they sent me an email saying that I do not qualify for any financial aid, which was a huge surprise and gut punch. That means that in order to attend the institution for two years I would have take on almost six figures in additional student debt, which is not feasible.
I reached out to a Professor who I had established a somewhat friendly connection with and he told me to contact a specific administrator and maybe something can be done. So now I am just kind of waiting to see if they might change their decision or if the COV-19 outbreak might end up meaning less students accept their offer and additional scholarships will become available before May 1st, when I would have to accept or decline.
All of that might seem very minor, and it basically is. But one year ago when I decided to move to Italy by myself, I took a big risk and it really was not so easy. I didn't know what I was going to find or what would happen. I was really afraid that I would just be wasting my time and delaying the inevitable of needing to come home and work some job that I hated to afford rent, healthcare, etc. Through a bunch of happy coincidences I ended up in Bologna where I have made a bunch of really good friends and it really felt like the risk that I took had paid off and I was moving in the right direction and kind of self-actualizing or some shit. That no longer seems to be the case and I am living in a pretty incredible period of personal uncertainty and confusion, which is funny because it is lining up perfectly with what feels like the end of the world as we have grown accustomed to knowing it.