As Far As I Can See
Archive of a blog I kept while living in Lisbon from October to April 2025
Reflections on my 25th year
Turning 25 didn't feel like something to celebrate amidst global wars, mass deportations and right-wing governments on the rise (to name a few), but the pressure and expectation to enjoy myself made things worse. Meeting myself where I was at emotionally lifted a huge burden, and actually allowed me to find the honest joy that was there.
Surviving Bureaucracy
“In the U.S., you have a citizenship test. In Portugal, you just have to survive the bureaucracy. If you can do that, you’re Portuguese.”
Sunset in Sintra
This has happened in my life maybe once or twice before: I’m witnessing something so abundantly beautiful, so completely breathtaking, that the only thing limiting my experience of it is my own capacity to take it in.
Arrival in Lisbon
In these streets, kneaded from a logic I cannot deduce, I feel the imprint of previous generations, people who lived their whole lives right here. It feels like an embrace from the past.