FLSLEO

Tiptoeing through sheets of paper on the floor, she opened her bedroom’s door. “Yes mama?” she uttered, “isn’t it about time you cleaned up this mess?” her mom asked in dissatisfaction with the state of her room. “I’ll get right to it” said a well-mannered daughter.

​

As she started picking up her drawings, she was caught by one drawing’s lack of details. So she picked up her pencil instead and started finishing up her drawing. One drawing after another, she had spent hours and hours drawing again and lost track of time.

​

The only thing she loved more than drawing were her animals; she would find a stray cat, pick it up, bathe and feed it, then send it free. Before long, the cats in her neighborhood knew her, and she them— for she was their caregiver. Too bad she couldn’t keep them in her house, for she had bunnies and fish, an unsafe environment in the presence of a cat.

​

When she wasn’t with her cats or drawings, she was in her backyard organizing a fashion show, in which she was a fashion designer, and her cousins were her models. She loved emptying her closet, using a pair of scissors to turn her hoodies into skirts, her pants into sweaters, and her socks into fancy mini-hats. She got into trouble quite often, but it was worth it.

​

She lived in a world of her creation.

​

She experienced evolution, not Darwin’s, but a designer’s. Her passion for drawing evolved and adapted to the digital form; instead of pastel, charcoal, and crayons she now uses Photoshop and Illustrator. Although she’s sometimes criticized for it, she doesn’t play by the rules. To her, nothing takes only one shape, but countless variations. A brochure is not necessarily a square piece of paper but a pyramid.

​

Against what many people around her have advised, not only did she start a career in graphic design— she built one out of thin air. She would finish her classes early afternoon to go to the office and gain valuable experience. Her friends were not pleased, for they wanted to hang out with her after school; but she knew her future was that important. She sacrificed it all to improve, and build a name for herself.

​

She finished school having achieved more than a typical student would have, and went on a journey, that would have her reach the moon.

​

This is Fatima.