Right aside our townhouse at the beach, there's a pedestrian street which is ah-mazing to install my tripod and camera everytime I come back from work in early evening, when the sun is going down and light is great to take a few shots of my daily outfit. The townhouse where I've spent most of my Summer seasons is your typical Spanish town house, with a patio, and a terrace, and impossible staircases covered in handpainted tiles. It belonged to my grandpa, and before him, to his grandparents. We live on a neighbourhood downtown where we all know each other, and neighbours have seen me grow up as I have seen their children.

I was setting my DSLR, the tripod, the remote and all the stuff when I saw my neighbour's girls walking their fluffy dog. They live in the house right in front of us, and they are the cutest children to which I'd given my toys once I became a grown up, or even taught some maths support lessons. They looked at me with curiosity while I was putting everything into place in the middle of the street, and I started asking them about school and how their grades went at the end of the semester. After a while, I waved goodbye as they looked as they were coming back home and, after just taking one or two pictures (blurry and out of frame, of course. It's still a bit tricky to figure out the whole tripod-auto-photo-blogging thing) they asked if they could join me with the pictures and help me, which of course I agreed to. I then explained briefly what I was doing, how I focused with the remote control and how to pose (well. Sort of) and they just didn't stop asking me questions and helped me to fit into the camera screen. It was very fun, and I think the pictures also ended up looking pretty good!

That event made me think about when I was 9 to 12 years old, and what were my expectations of myself, my role models and who I truly wanted to become. Now that I think about it, I'm not exactly what I expected or who I wanted to be (I just took another path), but, if I would come back about 12 years, I think the past Amanda would be glad of who she's become and what dreams she's pursuing. Until now, I didn't realize I have achieved a lot (I'm a young woman almost finishing a technical career where women graduates' rate is still low; I've been writing and taking the entrepreneurship path in a complete foreign language since I was 16 year old; I've already published papers in a couple of conferences, won several architecture prizes... And still hanged out with friends!) and that maybe, I'm trying very hard to be that woman role model I missed have when I was a child. Because, we're constantly told that we can become whatever we want to; that we have to work hard to achieve our dreams but... Where are the examples of absolutely regular people chasing their goals? Where are the stories about women breaking their glass ceilings and overcoming every difficulty in our very own quotidian environments and close to us in time? I think about the role models I didn't have as a child, and whose history and achievements I hadn't heard of until very recently: Marie Curie, Frida Kahlo, Lina Bo Bardi, Katharine Hepburn. And then, I think about the girls with their fluffy dog wanting to become a vet and a physio doctor, and I can't help but wonder if they have any role model to look up to, and if any day in the future I could be close to being one myself with the little but steady steps I'm already making.

That said, what or who did you wanted to be when you were younger? Did you exceed your expectations? What would your younger self think of you if you were a child?