di ANGELA QUATRARO – I’ve arrived in Sydney in 2013 and from that moment I’ve just been in love with this country, feeling part of it, being treated as a citizen, being in an amazing land that was offering me a better future than the one that my beloved country, Italy, could give me. I was 19 years old when I discovered that there was a place on the other side of the world where things were “working” well, laws were respected, meritocracy existed, people were nice, positivity was spread all around, landscapes were stunning, beauty was everywhere. I came back last September without having a real plan on what to do, but just because I needed to be back in that place which I consider to be my second home.

On the 3^rd of April, the Minister of Immigration said that temporary visa holders, like me, should “go home” as quickly as possible. We are talking about more than two million people. People that have been a huge part of the economy for all this time, that have been working and helping this place to be better, that have been actually paying substantial amounts of money to be able to live here, and paying taxes like everybody else. The same government during this hard time of Covid-19 emergency seems to have forgotten all of this, reassuming everything with the phrase: “Time to go home!”. I’m sorry but this is so disappointing, like me there are millions of people in the same situation. The minister had spoken without even a touch of humanity, he was talking about international students and workers like pieces of luggage that can go from one place to the other when he decides it’s the right time to do so. I’m sorry we are people, we are human beings, we have feelings, but seems that for you Sir we were just more money for your country. Now that many of us suddenly lost our jobs, there is no support for us, we don’t have the same rights of everyone else. When our visa application was approved, the sentence “Australia is welcoming you and supporting you” was clear and true upon the first page, considering that we are not included in $ 130 billion of subsidies approved by the government.

I would like you to know that we are in the middle of two fires, our beloved country of origin and the one where we’ve been living for years and that we’ve fallen in love with, we live two realities everyday, because being far away from family and friends in this moment is touching us all, emotions are amplified and we are powerless like everyone in this moment. Everything is so unreal and actually is not under our control. As a matter of fact, the Italian Consulate in Melbourne advices me to book my flight home as soon as possible, because no one is sure about what will happen after, and if it will be possible to go back at all. In contradiction to this, for many days almost all flights were not available or fully booked.

Honestly many of us were already thinking to be close to our people, to our families and friends, to our loved ones, to our country, but we were waiting for the right moment to do it, maybe when things were going to be a bit better and it was our decision to make. After your words, the desire to go back home is stronger, even if I would love to stay and it is not easy to leave. The fear is big, if you consider how much of a risk it is for us to travel, but the love for my country is deeper and stronger than anything else.

All this being said, I tend to think that the Australia I’ve been loving all this time, was mostly referring to the big piece of my heart and my family that lives here which is a great gift for me, to all beautiful people that I’m grateful I had the pleasure to meet, friends, housemates, colleagues, classmates. So I will spend some words for you all. I wish I could say goodbye properly, but I will send you a virtual hug to all of you, wishing all the best. I will miss you all. I will miss Australia, as every time I leave, but this time I will not forget why I had to do it. Now, the most important thing is being grateful everyday for our life and do our best to be safe and healthy, waiting for all this to finish and for the sun to raise up again for everyone. So take care you all, stay safe, stay strong.

Thank you all for the special time, for the smiles we’ve shared, for the great experiences we’ve been living, for the feeling of being a family all together, for the long shifts that were shorter next to you all, for the amazing connection between people that came from all different parts of the world to become one whole, without boundaries. Thank you Sydney for making me the person I am today, for allowing me to live this wonderful experience, for giving me the opportunity and the possibility to see the moon from the other side of the world, for the realisation of how precious was a Christmas or Easter time spent at home or how important were the little things that sometimes here were missing. Thank you for everything you taught me, for every single day here, for letting me discover the hidden side of myself or for letting me bloom with my better side, for making me stronger. Thank you for the immense beauty of the ocean and for the intimate sound of its waves. Thank you for letting me admire the unique colors of your stunning sunsets. Thank you for being my special place and for letting me realise that distance doesn’t exist when there is love. As Pascal Mercier says: “We leave something of ourselves behind when we leave a place, we stay there, even though we go away.”

My luggage will be once again heavier than when I arrived, full of precious memories, lessons and pictures of life that I will always keep in my heart.

I love you Australia, but I have to leave you.