Beginning every day

Who doesn’t remember the first day of school? Even though we were very young, it is impossible to forget the nervousness, anxiety and uneasiness that we felt on that first day. Meeting new people: teachers, classmates; the interaction, now inevitable, with people other than our family members. An encounter with the formerly unknown always produces hope, surprise and fear.

Your first kiss, first day of work, first romantic encounter, first child, first day in a new home or neighborhood; they are all unforgettable beginnings that are accompanied by strong emotions.

Beginning or beginning again is something that we human beings do constantly. It is part of living, but we do not all embrace this the same way; not all beginnings are of the same magnitude and they do not involve the same changes.

For those of us who start from scratch on an almost daily basis, without much to accumulate, every day is a new battle with life. Of course, this involves a large dose of courage and imagination and also a certain amount of self-assurance for confronting life, which makes us persevering people, dreamers, cheerful, because there is always a dream to achieve, a goal to reach.

September is a month of beginnings. That’s as it should be, because it’s when our summer vacation ends, the school year begins and another cycle of work begins that will last until next summer. This issue of OnCuba is dedicated to beginnings and to beginning again.

Breaking the inertia is the subject of our conversation with Dr. Manuel Calviño, and we tell you about a special way of starting out in life: with La Colmenita. A new beginning for Fanny, former karate champion and now leader of a rock band, and a new project involving Havana’s Mariel Port are some of the other topics that we bring you this month.