This month is when I step into the third year of my PhD, and I still do not identify myself as an academic. This is a conscious, biased choice. I do not want to be deeply embedded in their ivory towers. I want to keep my sense of self, my sense of humility, vulnerability, and my freedom. In choosing to do so, I know I will miss out on spaces and discourses; but there are other spaces where I want my voice to matter.

This month I also joined a tango documentary, even though I only started learning to dance last June. I was surrounded by and dancing with forty powerful women whose stories and strength are unparalleled. Many times during our rehearsals, I asked myself, if I chose to pursue arts, how would have my body transformed into a form where it is confident and sure of its movements? I can only keep exploring this question, as I break my own barriers.

This month, I also moved to a new house. I packed my life in fragile boxes, and labelled each of them very carefully.

It felt like everything happened in a blink of an eye. So I invite you to this seemingly brutal but rewarding trip: Oktubre.