Full circle journey begins

I remember it clear as day.

Sitting in the school hall.

The Stables it was called.

Dead silence but for the rustle of papers and the scratching of the balls of pens furiously tearing across the pages.

Word after word.

Line after line.

Page after page.

The culmination of 13 years of schooling.

8 exams.

But this one was different.

Over the pages I was painting a picture of a land far away.

Of a female from history, maybe the first, to portray herself as male in order to seize power.

The female Pharaoh.

Hatshepsut.

By the time I sat the exam it was like I knew her and her world inside out.

I felt connected to her.

I could describe in detail every level of her temple.

I could document her rise to power, the intricate web of moves that landed her the top job and how she fought to keep it.

Now it’s finally time.

Time for me to step into that ancient land and connect with her physically.

To walk through the colonnades of that temple and see for myself the display of female power.

Egypt.

A land of history and mystery.

Of mythology and treasures.

Ancient beyond anything I have experienced before.

Those words I scribbled back in the early 2000s, brought to life over the next 14 days.