There’s a moment in early childhood development, what neuroscientists might describe as the emergence of autobiographical memory — when a child moves from simply sensing the world to understanding themselves within it.
Neural pathways begin to connect emotion, place, and identity. Experience becomes memory. Memory becomes story. And, without realising it, the self begins to form.
Looking back now, I realise my awakening wasn’t some quiet, gentle moment of clarity—it arrived in a rush of colour, noise, and vibrancy. It was incredible, because for the first time, I was truly aware. Football on the wireless or scores shouted across the street, music drifting in and out of houses, politics being argued over cups of tea like it was a matter of life and death, all in brilliant technicolour.
