If every group has their archetypes – the cool one, the dreamer, the beauty – I’m the boring one. I have one talent: food. My best friend, Samira, is the imaginative dreamer; her cousin Lara is the life-loving wild one. While my friends had growing pains, I suffered a crushing social phobia. I wrapped it up in piety. But I was never racked with the same worries as my friends. You need to have desires and goals to be anxious about how your life’s turning out.
These thoughts flood my mind as I approach the front gate of Lara’s apartment block under a blanket of light rain. Uncertainty flows through me, and I suddenly feel self-conscious about my unexpected arrival. If there’s anyone likely to appreciate spontaneity, it’s Lara, but my body is tense, my nerves tightened like a thousand tiny bows. Seeing her again feels bigger than the choice I made to return home…









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