I recently got back from traveling in Portugal. I had an incredible time, and it was all the more momentous because THIS happened

11 years ago, I heard about a boy moving into our neighborhood. He was so built up in my imagination that I thought I knew him before I met him. So when I saw him on the first day of 9th grade, the only thing I could say was this: “HEY! IT’S YOU! I KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE!” Not the most auspicious beginning, but it always felt like a fairytale to me. Today, he took me to a fairytale castle nestled in the hills and full of labyrinthine grottos, figures of myth and gardens suffuse with magic, and asked to start a story together. I couldn’t dream up a better “Once upon a time…”

A post shared by Roshani Chokshi (@roshanichokshi) on Aug 9, 2017 at 6:57pm PDT