Dig through your couch cushions, your purse, or the floor of your car and look at the year printed on the first coin you find. What were you doing that year?

2007. Pretty recent. But my life has changed a lot from then. I was working in the local newspaper as a senior writer in the international desk. My professional life was intense. My mom was healthy and was living independently in her flat. She didn’t need special care.

I made a trip to Croatia to see my family and friends. It was a wonderful trip. I went in winter and spent most of my time in Zagreb. It was very cold but I didn’t mind. Zagreb has its charm in winter. I met a friend I hadn’t seen in ten years. We spent hours talking in a café in Jelacic square, with a hot coffee and a satchel cake, to catch up with our lives. She’s a musician with a very interesting life. My family, as always , willing to please me in everything in spite they have almost nothing. I had a wonderful time with them.

From my desk at the newsroom, I wrote about many important events. I can’t remember all of them. I know Iraq was in flames. I think that was the year when Tony Blair left power and Gordon Brown took over in the UK and the year when Nicolas Sarkozy was elected president in France. What I remember was the big surprise and expectation at the end of the year when a young black candidate began to rise in the polls as the possible democrat nominee for the president of the United States. A black candidate with some possibilities to beat his white opponents. Something unthinkable a few months before.

So When 2007 was finishing, I was writing about an unknown (for us) black democrat called Barack Obama who was defying to known candidates as Hillary Clinton or John McCain at the beginning of the race to the White House.

Now Obama is in his second term, Gordon Brown is history, Sarkozy left the presidency and now is trying to return to politics. Only Putin remains in power. Iraq continues in flames and we have in addition Syria the IS, Ukraine, and all the African conflicts.

I’m no longer in the newsroom. My health broke. My mom had an ictus and now is a paralytic, so she need us 24/7. And make a trip is out of the equation. Yes, things have changed a lot since 2007

Buffalo Nickel.