I'm standing outside the agricultural school. Maurizio is with his classmates, waiting to go in. He's always smiling, but today his smile feels tighter at moments. He's emotionally invested—and that fills me with both tenderness and pride, because it shows he understands how much this moment matters. For us, that wasn't a given. I'm moved too, as if I'm living a memory from years ago. Now Maurizio is walking into the building with his classmates, all of them smiling, all of them fully taking in this big turning point. Tense but radiant, emotional but alive, worried but so united—they lift each other up, they tease, they joke with Fabio, Maurizio's support teacher. They're beautiful, all of them. Venditti wrote that perfect song, "The Night Before the Exam." I'm living through a wonderful "Exam Morning," and my heart is flooded with so many feelings: my own indelible memories, the beautiful faces of Maurizio's classmates, his emotions, a chapter ending and the unknown ahead... and now the waiting.
(Paolo Catapano, 2019)