What is it with excellent questions these days? Every question I receive is a joy to answer. Here’s today’s:
If moving house is considered major life trauma, imagine moving countries. The first one, I was very young, so I mostly recovered fast. The second one, though, I was already 27, so it hit me hard. Took years to get over it. It’s like everything in your life is playing off-key. The feeling is disorienting, and it undermines everything you know about yourself.
It’s impossible to imagine what I would have put in the place that’s currently occupied with the Spanish-related stuff. I would have found something but what? Something psychology-related, maybe. I definitely would not have been an academic. I would have moved to a different region within the country because if I were to stay, I would have wanted to live as a Ukrainian, and back then it wasn’t possible in my very borderland city. I would have probably gone completely Ukrainian-speaking. I was massively nationalist in my early twenties, in case people don’t know.
I keep thinking about this, and I find it infinitely entertaining to imagine the version of myself that never heard the word “nation-state”, never read Rafael Chirbes, and has no opinions about wokeness.
Clarissa's Blog 
Leave a comment