3 July, 2019. A cafe, Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States. If you feel, as you are reading this, that 2019 has been the most insane year of them all; if you feel as if your world is falling apart; if you feel like you don’t know what direction the next life-bomb is coming from; if…
Chapter VI: Breaking
17 June, 2019. Terminal de Integração do Rio Tavares, Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil. It is especially humid tonight, cool and a bit clammy on my skin, streetlights casting orange haloes in the foggy air. I usually listen to music on public transport, but since it’s my second-to-last night in Florianópolis, I’ve opted for the murmured…
Chapter V: Assistance
14 June, 2019. Campeche, Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil. The almost-full moon is already high in the evening sky, but I can’t get comfortable. Everything feels scattered this week. Sometimes I get scared that I won’t be able to finish this story, that I will give up and walk away, that it will be just another…
Chapter IV: Returning
7 June, 2019. Campeche, Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil. I am really putting myself out there by telling this story in its entirety, with all the pieces given their proper weight. But I also can’t do it any other way. For too long I’ve been telling only certain parts of my story, justifying my decisions and…
Chapter III: Learning to Hop
29 May, 2019. Rio Tavares, Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil. I would love to write that it’s a beautifully quiet morning, the sunlight spreading itself softly across the white tiles as I unwrap my hand from around my coffee cup and begin writing. But the fact of the matter is that my current soundtrack is a…
Chapter II: The Leap
17 May, 2019. Campeche, Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil. There are questions swirling every day: What will it be? Who will it be? Where will I be? Who will I be? But the thing about how I’ve grown as a person in the last few weeks is that they are not agonizing. They’re more like little…
Chapter I: The Beginning
Where am I? I’m curled up in an office chair at the kitchen table, with a mug of Passion Fruit Weiss Bier by my laptop. I’m in the neighborhood of Campeche, on the island of Florianópolis, state of Santa Catarina, Brazil. A crazy wind has come up today, and I can see through the front…
Saying Goodbye to Sara
Sara walked into H&M and into my life about three days into my first week here in Granada, those September moments that already feel like a lifetime ago. She was calmly perusing the racks with a friend, and I remember being so struck by her; she is striking, about 5’9″ with deep-set brown eyes and high cheekbones and a cascade of gold-flecked…
Jade's Jaunts 