Ndraa Journal

Collections

A City Without My Name

Somewhere no one remembers who you were supposed to be.

01Arrival

Sometimes I imagine arriving in a city where no one knows my name. No history follows me through the station. No old version of me is waiting at the door. For once, I get to introduce myself before the world does.

A City Without My Name

02Stranger

There is something comforting about being a stranger. No one knows which parts of you are unusual. No one knows which parts you used to hide. You are simply someone walking down the street.

A City Without My Name

03A New Address

I don’t think I want a new identity. I think I want an address where my old one does not matter.

A City Without My Name

04First Morning

In the life I sometimes imagine, I wake up somewhere unfamiliar. I open a window. No one nearby knows where I came from. And for the first time, that does not feel lonely. It feels like permission.

A City Without My Name

05Without History

I wonder who I would become if I lived somewhere that had no memory of me. Maybe I would speak more. Maybe I would laugh louder. Maybe I would finally stop checking myself before every honest thing.

A City Without My Name

06Beginning

I never wanted another life. I only wanted the chance to begin this one somewhere I did not have to carry everyone else’s idea of me.

A City Without My Name

07Unknown

There is a version of freedom that looks almost like loneliness from the outside. A small room. An unfamiliar city. No one waiting for an explanation. And somehow, I think I would breathe easier there.

A City Without My Name

08The Name

Maybe one day I will live somewhere my name means nothing to anyone. And maybe that is where I will finally learn what it means to belong to myself.

A City Without My Name

09Becoming

I used to think I wanted to disappear. What I wanted was much quieter than that. I wanted to go somewhere far enough away that I could finally appear.

A City Without My Name

10Somewhere Else

Sometimes I still imagine it. A city after rain. A window left open. A street no one from my past has ever walked. And me, somewhere inside it, no longer rehearsing who I am allowed to be.

A City Without My Name

LetterA City Without My Name

To the City I Haven’t Found Yet

to a place that has never heard my name

I hope you do not give me a new identity. I hope you give me enough quiet to finally keep my own.

JournalA City Without My Name

A Place That Doesn’t Know Me

I just want to know what I am like when no one is expecting me to be anyone in particular.