23 November 2003. Bologna. Sunday, late afternoon.
I’ve just returned to my university apartment after spending the weekend with my parents. The bed beside mine is covered with clothes, bags, and all sorts of things I probably should put away. But apparently, taking a picture is more important.
There’s my Nokia 7110, next to the remote control of a 14-inch Sony TV from 1987. A bottle of water, a TuttoCittà (the Google Maps of those days, on paper), some magazines, and a few other things I can barely recognise today. And the iMac keyboard and mouse box, of course. It’s been there for years. Don’t ask me why.
I wonder why I took this picture. I probably had no particular reason. Maybe I was just playing with my digital camera.
Or maybe I do know.
Maybe I could sense that something was about to change. Maybe everything, maybe nothing. As it turned out, that would be my last winter in that apartment. Perhaps I already knew, somehow, and, as I’ve always done, I wanted to capture even something as ordinary as my own mess.
Right there, in that room I’d lived in and loved for five years.
In a few weeks I’ll graduate. I know that, of course, but I have absolutely no idea what life has in store for me. Right now, it’s just another Sunday evening, in my room, surrounded by my things. Tomorrow will be Monday, and life will go on.
Almost 23 years later, I find this picture and smile.
I remember that room. I remember the TV, the phone, the bed, and the feeling of having a little place of my own. I remember being young, having dreams, making plans, and sometimes having no plans at all.
So much has happened since then. People I’ve met, places I’ve seen, things I’ve built, mistakes I’ve made. I wouldn’t trade the life I’ve had for the chance to go back.
But looking at this picture, I realise that sometimes I’d love to spend just one more Sunday evening in that room. Not to change anything, and certainly not to tell my younger self what will happen.
Or maybe just a little. Something like: “Yes, printing that FreeBSD Handbook was a great idea. And believing in Open Source was the right thing to do.”
Or maybe just to be there, for a little while, and breathe in the smell of that room. Of that time. Of that… me.
Even with all that mess.
