Grown-Up

Itacaré, Bahia, Brazil — August 29, 2025

💬 At last, I realize that I am a person. A grown-up, open, prepared, and finite. Someone who wants to live, wants to grow, wants to face things head-on. Someone who does not let life beat him down.

I am alive, my mother’s handiwork. The Sun made me determined and responsible; the Moon, empathetic and dreamy; Mercury, pragmatic; Venus, revolutionary and faithful in love; Mars, intentional and ambitious. Even so, I was the one who made myself a person.

I remember the maxim: what matters is not what they made of me; what matters is what I make of what they made of me.

If the statistics bear out and nothing tragic happens, this year I complete the first third of my time. Time that is relentless, devours us, and moves on, indifferent to our desire.

I enter the next two thirds committed to being radically responsible for what I will make of myself. I know that my greatest deeds, the ones for which I will be remembered when I am dead, are still to come.