When I became single, I had to carve out some survival rules. I had been in a relationship since I was 18 (and now I was turning 30). I didn’t have my own bank account, I had no idea I could fall asleep alone, I was used to squeezing all my make-up on the shared sink – in other words, I had no idea on how to navigate the world without a partner. When I became single, all I had was: - a 3 year old toddler and a 12 month old baby - a badly paid career as a screenwriter and book

*this post concludes the stories contained in Love Intuition and Without Reason. Nevertheless, you don’t need to read the posts to get this story. We saw each other for one year, during which we would spend a lot of time with our girls. Happy, beautiful family. His daughter became very attached to me, although we never admitted on being an official couple. In other words, our girls thought we were just friends. He wanted to finalize the divorce before we could come out as an

Last week I talked about my undesired and unexpected pregnancy at 18 on the post My Body, My Rules. After talking to my boyfriend and discussing it with my mother, I was faced with a decision that could only be taken by myself. And I would have to live with it for the rest of my life. In both scenarios – keeping or getting rid of the embryo – I would be the one to deal with remorse, guilt, satisfaction and relief. My body, my life, my rules. But which were my rules? 1 – I was

I know we all like to say how cool our parents are – yes, there is a tacit competition in humankind to have the best folks. I really got a golden ticket, since the day I was born. I have the coolest parents I could ask for. My parents gave me love, a lot, but also the kind of guidance and friendship that allowed me to feel (and be) free while maintaining my feet on the ground. Prequel They met in 1969 at a Communist Party meeting. Ana Maria, a raised catholic, and Mauro, the

On a hot September Monday of 1998, I was climbing the high bridge that ties together the buildings of the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), to apply for an MFA, when I experienced dizziness. The height, that never looked so scary to me, felt strangely uncomfortable. It was around 9 in the morning when I was trying to get to admissions for forms and information. A janitor helped me cross the rest of that long bridge to get to the other building. I spent some minutes r

I was conceived outside of religion lock. My father, descendant of Russian and Romanian Jews; and my mother, the daughter of Catholics, met in 1968, the year that rocked the world. They had different religious backgrounds but shared the same dreams. In 1974, when I was born in a suburban hospital of Rio de Janeiro called “Italian Hospital”, they had no plans of choosing my religion. They decided to give me complete freedom to choose when I grew older, or to not choose at all.

My daughters will be the fifth generation of higher educated women. I know, we are extremely privileged when so many women are going to college for the first time. Since I am very proud of my ancestors, I want to share a bit about their incredible journeys. My great-grandmother graduated in Odontology in 1905 – one of the first females in Brazil! Her name was Guiomar, she was born in 1878, in my hometown of Rio de Janeiro, gave birth to four kids and passed very young, at 40.

What I remember from cancer, growing up, is that it was a rarer disease. Not something you get from the air, the water, from food or aging. Not, for sure, something babies are born with. So the first time I heard my grandma’s Clara had returning lung cancer I was devastated. The first time she got it was I a baby. My recollection is something small and “simple”: a lump, removed, some chemo, done. Now, more than twenty years later, it was back, and it would kill her at age 74,