LOCKDOWN DIARY

None of us could have imagined our lives would be struck by a global pandemic. Until it happened, and our lives suddenly changed. Everything slowly shuts down. No meetings, no parties, no movies, no sporting events, no restaurants. Fear of Covid-19 forces us to repudiate our most natural and ancestral instinct to socialise, to deny our innate desire to form strong, concrete, durable bonds with other human beings. So, when it's impossible to satisfy such an ancient need, and we are forced to be apart from the world, what's left? Callum Ross, in his darkest moments, discovered that communication has many faces, and one of those faces has the shape of a diary. With all the difficulties of a lockdown that lasted over a hundred days, he found the strength to face his fears and insecurity. When he couldn't reach out to the world, he did what he could to survive: he reached out to himself. And, as he was locked inside his house, he didn't just survive: his inner journey led him to a personal growth, to a renewal of his passion for writing, to a mature and complete consciousness of his dreams and hopes. Callum is unique but, at the same time, he is every one of us ? he wants to live, to love, and be loved. By publishing his diary he proves that, even when it seems most unlikely, the will to connect and communicate with others is a powerful tool to face life's hardships.