A write these words not seeking pity, but rather to simplify my life. Rather than rehatching the story, and the trauma of the experience, over and over to each person who loves me, I´ve centralized and consolidated.
This is the story of my 23rd birthday. In which no candle was blown out. In which no "happy birthday" was sung. But instead involved picking up the pieces and trying to start again.
At twelve o´clock I left the house to have breakfast at my favorite little spot in San Telmo. I had my café con leche and my homemade bread as always, and thought about what I could do to fill my birthday that would make me the happiest. what would i eat, what would i buy, when would i nap, where would i stroll.
Picking up some fresh sorrentinos (giant raviolis) on the way home, I complained about how could pasta for two cost me $50 pesos, it was a ridiculous price, and then decided that it was my birthday and i would let nothing get to me. that I, as the birthday girl, was untouchable, nothing would bother me on my day.
Exactly an hour after leaving my house, 1:05pm, I returned to find it ransacked, turned upside.
I had been robbed. for the first time in my life. on my birthday.
Everything had been pulled out of the drawers and the closets. I couldn´t step in the bedroom without walking over my belongings. Rather than bursting into tears or panicking, it was just surreal. i was in a blank shock. called the police, called my apartment owner. they both came right away. the police did little, the apartment owner offered to make tea and helped me sort through the hurricane.
they entered through the balcony. jumping from the rooftop terrace. and they took.
u$s 3,000 (roughly all of my savings, which i had the bad luck of having taken out of my account when I went to the United States in order to facilitate paying my rent (which is USD) but hadn´t had time to pass over yet to my landlord).
my laptop with all the research I´d been doing on graduate schools; every paper i´ve ever written for Vassar or the UBA; every photo from Chile, Peru, Palestine, Argentina, life (30G))
my external harddrive which had the backup copy to everything in the laptop leaving me with nothing.
my DVD book with 200 DVDs that had been so many birthday and christmas presents over the last five years. and also included all of the CDs I had.
a gold necklace with emeralds that my dad had given me as a child, it had been one of only two momentos I had left of him. thankfully the other one i was wearing.
a silver heart necklace with speck diamonds my mother had just two weeks before given me for my 23rd birthday. i hadn´t even worn it more than twice because i loved it so much, and it was so special.
all of my coins (crucial here to public transportation) and my monedero (coin purse), a gift from a woman I met in Peru three years ago. i didn´t even have enough money to take a bus.
my camera with all the photos that weren´t on my computer.
my U.S. cellphone, though they left the charger
my argentine charger, though my cellphone as it was with me
thankfully so many of the things you really love - my baby blanket for example - have no value to anyone else and were left behind. But the amount of time it took me to save up that nest egg, and the memories in those photos... it´s so much time lost.
and it was my birthday. and i am devastated.
thankfully i don´t feel scared in my apartment. it was very planned, down to the details, not a random robbery. it sucks knowing someone in the building was an accomplice (according to the police evaluation of what happened), but at least I can´t blame myself for not being safe. It was something I could not protect myself against, and I don´t feel scared - why would they come back! I have nothing left to give!
thankfully I´m young. no big expenses, no debt, no children to support. I´ll rebuild with time. because what else have you got? you´ve gotta pick back up, and start again.
