I did what I loved

When I was a child, I wasn’t concerned about anything. I only played and was very happy. I liked studying, but my best memories are on playing with my cousin at my father’s farm. I had a rustic life. I grew-up among cows, horses and pigs, and it was great. We used to wake-up earlier than the rest of the family to see the sun-rises and to begin doing lots of things. One of the most extraordinary things we used to do was to build up little tents with dry grass and wood. It was fantastic because we considered those rustic buildings our own homes. We used to go fishing too. Fishing was like a battle. The best fisher would take the bigger fish, and during those moments it was impossible for us to see time passing. When I was thirteen, my life began to change. I continued to be a child, I really loved playing, but at that moment, I became more serious. I used to read a lot. I loved reading detective stories and imagining that I was a Sherlock Holmes or a Hercule Poirot and that I could solve any mysteries. In my class, the girls began to think they were already women and it was strange because my comrades and I still had a child soul. I didn’t know what to do and the common problems of a teenager began. I was worried about the society's opinion on me, that I had to go out with my friends and to pretend to be grown-up, what I really wasn’t. Instead, I sank in my books and in its imaginary world. I only began to go to parties and to act like an adult when I felt that I was ready to. However, it was impossible for me to avoid people's looks. They thought I wasn’t normal. Today, I laugh when I think about what happened to me. I was so stupid! But I was happy, I had a healthy childhood and when I was a teenager, I did what I loved.

Belo Horizonte, september 1999