In 1987, at the age of 11, I went to visit my family in the U.S., and that’s where I met her. She was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen in my short life, and I fell in love with her from the very first moment. She must have been around 14 years old, and although we only crossed paths a few times at family gatherings, every time we ended up alone somewhere, the silence was deafening and my attraction to her was intense. Even to this day, I would say what I felt was mutual. I never had the courage to tell her what was going through my mind and heart at that moment, and I never saw her again—but I remember that year as my first love.