I cross and recross memories, and always recall a single object. The atlas. Late nights, tracing fingers over the outlines of unknown shapes. A boy forever dreaming of other worlds; of far-off places and stories interwoven between those magic lines of longitude and latitude.

Places I’ve drawn my own lines; and created my own worlds.

Growing up, I was instilled with this idea that no boundary or convention would define my pathway out into the world. It was in my nature to ask questions and yet, no answers ever satisfied my curiosity to know more. I felt different, not in my genetic makeup, but in my deep empathy that would connect me to the experiences of another, and the imagination that drove every story and every sense wild.

Etched into my grandfather's stories of the East and tales of my parents journeys through the West; was an everlasting lesson in how to seize freedom and opportunity. From those moments, it was forever ingrained in my being; to dream larger than life and act on curiosity. An undeniable curiosity to know other landscapes, other histories, other contexts, other lives. To see the world beyond the atlas, and to see the world is not actually divided.

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