I went to the chemist’s a couple of days ago. After I’d paid for the stuff I bought, the smiling cashier gave me a little present: a magnetic 2021 calendar for the fridge. I stared at it, incredulous, shocked, and turned as pale as a sheet. “Are you ok, Ma’am?”, the girl asked. “Yes”, I lied, behind my mask, which has become my second skin by now. I thanked her and stumbled my way out of the shop. “What?!”, I almost cried out.  “2021 ALREADY?? What about 2020?? Is it over yet? Has it vanished into thin air??? What did I miss???” All of a sudden I realized that a whole year has gone by in the twinkling of an eye. The weirdest year of my whole life, of our whole lives. As someone wisely said, 2020 feels like a scary movie, based on a book by Stephen King and directed by Steven Spielberg. When we studied history at school and learnt about countless past plagues, we never imagined we would be living one ourselves, did we? Now we are aware more than ever of our extreme vulnerability, in spite of the so called progress. An invisible (and, so far, invincible) virus, has put the whole world at stake. We’ve had to learn to live with uncertainty, trusting that science will save us in the near future. A hard lesson; a titanic, collective effort which we hope will bear fruit as soon as possible. Sigh …