My parents and I departed from Saudi Arabia when I was eighteen months old. We lived with my maternal grandparents in a lovely house sitting on the bay in Sausalito, CA, just on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco.

Before moving to Sausalito, I had no conscious memories of life, but they began soon after I arrived.

My first conscious memory occurred one night when the adults sat down to dinner. I was sitting under the dining room table and was listening to the dinner conversation. While sitting there, I realised that the feet I saw crawling on the floor correlated with the voices speaking at the table. So I could use the unique characteristics of each person to identify them. I now understood that I was separate from others and had my own thoughts and feelings. That I could make choices based on how I thought and felt. It was exhilarating.

From that day onward, I realised I had awakened from my previous existence.

I spent much of my day exploring my surroundings and thinking about life. As I grew older, I walked further. No one seemed to mind, as I never got lost or kidnapped. I wasn’t a dummy.

I lived in Sausalito and Lafayette, California, until I moved to Puerto Rico. My parents had another son when I was two and one-half.