Making of Emma
It took only eight years...
Instead, she lays a trap gently and quietly on the bottom of the sea and waits. She occasionally forces herself to the surface to attend social events where the possibility of meeting like-minded fish isn’t totally unlikely. However, she usually waits - for someone to notice her and take the bait.
Emma is a collection of short essays on heartbreak. It’s a self-initiated project I started back in 2016. Yes, eight years ago…and I finally finished it!
First of all, I should mention Emma is NOT my usual offering. Not a picture book. Not for children. This started as a therapy - making things is my way of processing my negative feelings. In 2016 I was still licking my wounds from a breakup that happened a year earlier. The relationship lasted three years. Some might say “It’s only three years. Get over it!”, but I was (and am) a cautious and guarded person when it came to matters of the heart so it meant a lot.
One day I was reading a chapter called 'Facing Suffering' in The Art of Happiness by Dalai Lama. According to the Buddhist leader, “If you directly confront your suffering, you will be in a better position to appreciate the depth and nature of the problem.” It made a lot more sense than any other self-help advices I was obsessively reading online at that time. So I created a character called Emma, my alter ego if you will, and penned my thoughts and feelings with her as a vessel.