Dear Boy was the first thing I ever wrote.
In 2020, I was living in co living houses in Venice Beach, California. During that time I made friends with so many people from all walks of life artists, influencers, people in tech startups, entrepreneurs, musicians etc the list goes on. There was one particular person I met this beautiful French woman Sandra, a Yoga teacher, the kind of person that you just felt good and at ease being around. She introduced me to this book called ‘The Artist’s Way’ I remember sitting on the back deck writing while she was practicing yoga. She got up off her mat at one point and randomly started talking about this book that changed her life, I searched for it online with her, and infront of our eyes, without even clicking anything on my browser, it bought itself. We were both like whaaat?! Anywho, flash forward a month or so and, all these rhymes started spiling out of me. I would be skating on the street listening to music, and I’d have to stop on the side of the road, in someone’s front yard, on a roundabout, or jump up on a wall and type furiously in my notes - I was possessed.
This poem Dear Boy was the first creative writing piece I ever wrote as an adult. It was inspired by a friend of mine, Jake who I met while living in a co-living house in LA. Even though we shared a kitchen, and living room along with other housemates we didn’t talk much in the month after I moved in. He was always at work, working long hours on a major construction site in LA as a project manager. He would never participate in social activities that were organised by our co living community, when he did, he stood back, seemed so serious and closed off from everyone, until one night I heard familiar music playing through our oh so thin, and cheaply made walls. One night it was the theme song of Disney’s Moana and the next night it was Coco’s. I was like whaaa, wait… hang on a second! I confronted him one afternoon in our shared bathroom and long story short that’s how we became good friends.
Me and Jake just after we got matching tattoos 🦋
At the time we were also living with a younger guy Jason who was super extroverted, fun and had had this beautiful nervous energy about him, he couldn’t sit still. After getting to know both these two and becoming close friends with them, we opened up about mental health issues we had all gone through. They each reminded me so much of my brothers.
Dear Boy was written for all those who have gone through mental health battles, and in memory of my late uncle Angelo.
Zara
This is Ymnaste’s Newsletter, a newsletter about Turning madness into flowers.