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March

Queen of Hearts

COOLLECTING ARCHIVE

Bea Forte

7/26/20262 min read

February's letters traveled to so many different places, and every single day, I feel more and more grateful for each one of you here. You're part of this journey. You're teaching me it's okay to evolve, to experiment, to not have it all figured out yet.

Love, Bea

Howdy Coollectors,

I don't know about you guys, but I've been seeing horses everywhere lately. It's the Year of the Horse, so I can't really call it a coincidence, but something about that keeps pulling me back to a memory.

When I was a kid, I was obsessed with the idea of riding a horse into the horizon. My cousin and I would gallop around my grandma's house, or play around my grandpa's cattle, pretending we were as wild and free as the cowgirls in old Westerns.

Fast forward to choosing a university degree. In Brazil, you apply for a specific program upfront, and if you change your mind halfway through, you have to start completely over. When my time came, I felt lost, and I let other people tell me which path to take. Agronomy seemed like the obvious choice. From day one, I knew it wasn't for me.

I was scared and lost, but I quit anyway. And the hardest part wasn't starting from scratch. It was not knowing what I actually wanted to do.

We're asked as kids, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" And as adults, we sit around waiting for some kind of calling, a lightning bolt, a clear sign from the universe. But sometimes it doesn't come that easily.

This is the fourth month of this mail club. I'm building a career as an illustrator now. Couldn't be further from agronomy. The only "cowgirls" in me these days are the ones I draw on paper. Feels kinda crazy to think about.

This project has been teaching me so much about myself. My style is evolving, my voice is finding its shape, and every month feels like a new step forward. I'm learning to trust my path, and my way into the horizon.