It was the brightest time of my life. The temperature was always 72 degrees, the sun was always out, the sunglasses were always on, the commute to the ocean was one and a half songs. Everything around was yellow and blue, white and green, modern and not very sophisticated. As you might have guessed, I lived in California. Back in 2016 I lived in San Diego, hated it with all my existence: freshly arrived immigrant with lost self-identification and deep creative crisis, that's what I was at the moment Aunt Caroline entered my misery and without asking permission claimed herself as my Californian fairytale godmother. Maybe because she liked me at once, maybe because she was lonely too, or maybe because I had a Persian name.

From Issue 93 — The Stress Test