From the Beginning 📦
A series on memory, identity, and what it means to return to the page.
A few years ago, I brought a box from Brazil. Inside were notebooks, letters, DVDs full of forgotten photos. Diary entries I had written between the ages of nine and twenty-two. Pages filled with heartbreak and hope, song lyrics and class notes, detailed descriptions of people I adored, lists of dreams I hadn’t yet outgrown.
At the time, I wasn’t ready to open it. So it stayed tucked away in the closet, patiently waiting.
Until now.
This week, I felt a strong urge, a need, to open the box, and what I found left me speechless. There was so much there. I had completely forgotten how much of my life I had written down. How closely I had paid attention to things and how I was already trying to make sense of the world, using words as anchors.
I’ve decided to go through it all and share pieces of what it sparks here with you.
Some of it will make me laugh. Some will likely make me cry. But all of it feels meaningful, like holding a conversation with the girl I used to be.
This series is called From the Beginning, and it will unfold one memory, one revelation at a time.
If you’ve ever felt the pull to return to the younger version of yourself, the one who still believed, or felt lost, or wrote just to survive… I think you’ll feel at home here.
Thanks for being here with me.
Lilian
