Remembering what’s important to me is my freedom. I make memory books that are filled with everything special to me. I collect reminders from every day. I collect receipts or a napkin with the name of the place or if I go to the movies or ice-skating, I get tickets or I take a photo. I think I never do anything, but looking back through my memory books reminds me of all the things I have done. It makes me very happy. My parents say, ‘Throw them away, they’re junk’. But I say, ‘No way. These are my memories. This is my freedom’.
It’s part of my life. I can’t read or write. Other people can write down what they’ve done, but I can’t and it hurts me. But my memory books give me a way to see my freedom. My grandfather had some books with his perfume in it. They smell just like him. I remember him with that perfume. That’s where I got the idea to spray perfume in my books. And I’ve realised that he couldn’t read or write either so he would have made his books for similar reasons to me. Memory is freedom.
