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@annorich 1/ Me too. It's the "what if" exercise. It's tragic, some say it's unproductive, but maybe not. Maybe we should write the what if fictions. Maybe, just maybe, it has a role.
@annorich 2/ What if they made it and Oscar found his relatives and friends, stayed in a collective house but was soon hired because of his special skills with plants at a local nursery. And Valeria started going to school in a class with a bunch of Korean children.
@annorich 3/ In 2020, the Democrats won the presidential elections and took the Senate. Oscar applied for residency and soon had his pink card. Since he also worked part-time at a small hand-made furniture shop, he saved money.
@annorich 4/ The nursery suffered a financial blow because of one of the partners who stole their money. They solved it and invited Oscar as partner. The nursery grew and partnered with a small biotech startup from Gainesville, FL.
@annorich 5/ Meanwhile, Valeria was put into the gifted program. The school called Oscar and told him that he shouldn't be worried about her being quiet: she has become fluent in four languages without being taught. She had a rare language and mathematical gift and they ...
@annorich 6/ ... got his permission to partner with the University of Florida cognitive development research consortium. Valeria was unaware of how special she was and grew up like any normal little girl.
@annorich 7/ When offered to have Valeria skip several grades, Oscar decided not to. He explained to the school that he would talk to her about it but he was concerned with her being forcibly socialized with kids too much older than her. "Let her enjoy her childhood - I couldn't".
@annorich 8/ Because of the consortium, Caltech, Harvard and Yale had an eye on her. But Oscar's nursery was thriving and the new successfully grown species from Central America were feeding the new startup research. He didn't want to leave FL and didn't want Valeria so far from him.
@annorich 9/ They settled for Harvard where Valeria was naturally attracted by the neurosciences lab. She hung out there as an undergraduate and quickly was pulled into the graduate program.
@annorich 10/ Her dissertation revolutionized the field of language neuroscience, she had offers from the best universities in the world but she really wanted to make a difference in her country. She accepted a job as director of neurosciences of the Univsersidad de Costa Rica,
@annorich 11/ ... in partnership with the Smithsonian. Oscar missed her enormously and developed mild depression. Valeria then negotiated an arrangement with the UF so that she could spend part of the year with her dad.
@annorich 12/ This is my "what if" story. There are infinite what ifs. I "watched in my head" a whole what if story about a young friend who died of suicide last week (another American tragedy). That was my way of finally putting him to rest.
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