At ease, faoii. There are no orders tonight, only words.

I am 28 years old today. 

I know it doesn’t seem like a particularly important milestone, but look around you. Somehow, in one year, we have gone from The Last Faoii sitting on my shelf, consigned to gather dust for the rest of eternity to this. An entire army of people willing to lift a blade to make sure that it becomes more than just a dream. That it becomes something real-- a sword for our daughters to wield when it seems there are no more heroines. I had given up a year ago. I knew Faoii was a story worth telling, but had lost hope that it would ever happen. It was on a whim that I decided to try Inkshares for one final charge at an unattainable victory. Who would have thought at the time that so many would come to the call?

I don’t think I ever truly expected to be where I am now. I play many roles, depending on the day. I am a mental health activist, a political blog writer, a teacher, a sign waver... and a faoii. I didn’t expect to be these things-- Blades, on many occasions I didn’t even expect to see this birthday. But now I’m here, and I am, as always, eternally grateful to be able to say that I fight many wars on many fronts-- but there is only one where so many people stand behind me in the name of a tale that no one else but us can make happen.

I know that everything seems uncertain, faoii. Inkshares can’t tell me when our story will be published or even when they’ll request the manuscript that waits so tentatively on that shelf. It would be so easy to lose hope; to regress to where we were a year ago. But we will not.
 
I will continue to fight for this story until there is no more breath left in my body. And I am honored to have you at my side during the battle.  In 28 years, I have never wanted to be anywhere as much as here. Shields up.

Faoii-Tahani