Looking for the Light at the End of the Tunnel

A fictional memoir from a Chilean miner who was a part of the 2010 Copiapó mining accident:

We’ve been counting the days. All of us putting a small mark on the tally in our head. It makes us think that with every day that passes, maybe we’re getting closer to getting out of here. That may or may not be true, but the positive attitude is what gets us through the day.

Sometimes during the day I get distracted enough to forget I’m trapped. I can fool myself into thinking it’s just a normal day at work. We break into groups, we are assigned tasks, and we work the day in the mines. But where we would normally break for lunch, or to go home for dinner, there’s nothing to eat. Rationed food every 48 hours just doesn’t compare. Especially not to my wife’s home cooked meals. That’s another thing that makes me remember I’m trapped. I sleep on a hot damp floor instead of in a peaceful house with my family.

I’ve never felt like this before. So dirty, so greasy, so thin, so unhealthy. I can’t tell if there’s permanent physical damage to my body, I can’t even tell what I look like. I wonder if my eyes will ever adjust to the sun again, or if I’ll have to lead a life of darkness. I wonder how long it’s even possible for us to survive down here. With the food we have it doesn’t seem like more than 70 days or so would be possible. But none of us have died so far. And I’m just going to tell myself that’s the way it will keep going.

This is a test most others won’t experience in their lifetime. And it’s not even as much a physical test, as it is a test of mental strength. Our main goal down here is to keep up the morale, because with that, we’ve lost everything. Urzúa told us the only thing a positive attitude can do is help us, and I’m sticking to that. I will keep images in my head of the things I love about life, and the things I will soon return to. I will be a part of not only a support system, but a family I have now become a part of. And I will tell myself, above all, that if I survive this, I can survive anything.