Announcement

Every time I get the urge to write, I find myself drowning in self-doubt, in one way or another. But I must get this down on paper, I must let the ink stain the page – perhaps just a terrible way to say that my heart has been stained. Thus I must do what I do best: let the stains taint my words on the blank page before me. But before I do that, I must make this announcement – for myself than anyone else.

I’m honestly sick of bringing myself down because I should write in Portuguese instead of English if I want to make something real out of my writing, to maybe, if I get lucky enough, get something published someday. There is no “should” or “shouldn’t” when it comes to art, writing is natural, it runs in my veins, and if it comes to me in English, – which is in fact my mother tongue, as I grew up in Michigan before coming here and learning Portuguese – who am I to question it? To make it smaller to fit in a box. A box I completely made up.

So this is an announcement of sorts. I’ll be writing and posting whatever the hell I want. Stick with it or don’t. I made a self-commitment long ago that, wherever the tides take me, I’d always write for myself and not to please anybody else. So here I am, uncut, uncensored, just me. Still holding close the same wish: that by writing so intimately, someone out there will read these incredibly personal tales of my own and see themselves in it. Art can only thrive because no feeling is unique. That’s the beauty of being human.