Camila

Is there anything you're afraid of in 2030?

Just living! I mean, just living to breathe, to eat, to have some kids and a house and die after having just lived. I want to - I need to - break out of that.

How do you to that?

You read. You always read. I think there are three ways of reading: You read a text, you go to the cinema, or you travel. Reading a text is putting your own brain aside and then thinking on someone else's behalf. Same thing in the cinema: When you walk out, you feel like you haven't been in your own head for hours. And lastly, it's travelling. Why? Because every knew move and new decision will rewrite your day, and your own story. So maybe it's more like writing. To write your own course of days. That's absolutely to liberate yourself from just living. 

When has writing been the most liberating for you?

I always write during my travels - for instance, when I was in Colombia, and it was dangerous and boiling and 15 big men in our hostel dorm. I wrote my way through it. But you know, more importantly, reading can open everyone up. Here in Paraguay we had a long dictatorship, were you aware of that? That meant you couldn't go into a bookstore and buy whatever you liked. And that was exactly what the dictator wanted for us; to not read to be able to liberate ourselves from just living under him. Because people had a hard time imagining a different world. And imagine now! You open your laptop and it is all books books books - just on screens - and it never ends. You can always find something new to read online. 

How are you planning on using reading in the future?

To confront the issues at work face to face. Here in Paraguay we say to grab the ox by its horns: Whenever it is too stressful and busy at work, I will read. And I will imagine how to deal with the problem here and now, and get on with it. You can always read.

Camila // Asuncíon, Paraguay