I couldn’t wait to lose the person I’d been. What is college except the chance to try on many selves?
Mathilde didn’t understand my decision. “What’s so bad about derivation? Isn’t everything derived? We just usually call it ‘in conversation with…’ Is it even possible to really copy someone? If someone tried their hardest to mimic another person, their unique life experiences and skills would still yield completely different results.”
I believe that every person is capable of art that meaningfully connects with others in the world.” “I’ve always felt that I wasn’t as gifted as other people.” “Ah-ah. Like I always say in my first lecture to every new class, there is no gifted. Only the gift of being fully oneself, and expressing oneself to the utmost.”
I cthe Enka recorded in this mind is at odds with the one Enka knows herself to be. This Enka is wise, powerful, and calm. This Enka is intelligent, thoughtful, and wildly creative. And where Enka has always thought of Mathilde as a bird at great height, soaring ever farther away from her, the observer now sees that Mathilde believes Enka to be just as mysterious. A sunk stone in the depths of the ocean that she longs to uncover, holding her breath longer to dive deeper each time.