ICARO DORIA “YES, WE ARE SOCIALLY DISTANT. BUT WE ARE MENTALLY CLOSER THAN WE’VE EVER BEEN” My daughter Mia was born on January 7th, 2020 on the 4thday, we had never exchanged a word and three years too late, floor of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.we started talking. That’s when the neighbours to our left also walked outside and joined the conversation. 15 minutes later Six floors above us, at the Center for Virology and Vaccinewe had a group of 12 people, all on their balconies, talking Research, Dr. Noe Mercado called his boss to ask for approvalabout how it had been for them. to start working on a vaccine to a new virus that had appeared in Wuhan, China. That half hour I spent in our balcony changed everything for me. Yes, we are socially distant. But we are mentally closer than Ignorant to what was happening a few floors up, I becamewe’ve ever been. a father and my world changed. A month later, the world changed. The roller coaster of emotions that I’m in is the same as yours and the person six feet away from you. Isn’t this the exact thing There’s nothing more optimistic than having a child. Here’s awe aspire to achieve when we create something? To express little person that you love more than you love yourself comingyour feelings through something you create, and have others, into the world you shaped for her. Optimism. How? Haven’tfar away, understand exactly what and how you are feeling? I you seen the news? am feeling exactly like you and you are feeling exactly like me, and this is magical. Here’s what happened next though…one day, I dared to open the doors and walked onto our small balcony. My neighbours from across the street were doing the same thing. Up to that 35 DARE!