To the one who understands that presence is the only true remedy.
Ciça was one of the first people who taught me—without even realizing it—that identity isn’t destiny. It’s a journey. A crossing. It’s wind that shifts direction, a body that transforms, a choice we make again and again, every single day.
I met Ciça on the way to school. She’s younger than me, but only on paper. In her eyes, she carried the weight and wonder of someone who had already lived a thousand lives before our friendship ever began. In the classroom, we were separated by a grade. Outside of it, nothing. We were always in sync. She even came on my graduation trip! Because Ciça is one of those people who don’t just pass through your life. They belong in the most important chapters of your story.
She dives deep, with affection, presence, and a kind of truth that quietly disarms.
Ciça was born with that rare gift of truly seeing others without judgment. Of meeting what’s different not with fear, but with reflection. She is a mirror that welcomes. As a child, she danced with a joy that couldn’t be taught; it simply was. The music never mattered. The moment she stood, the entire room shifted its rhythm, its colors, its breath.
She became many.
Long hair. Shaved head. Pink. Platinum. Red.
She’s been a surfer, a runner, a skier.
She’s been wave, trail, vertigo.
Now, she is a ritual. Silence. Connection.
A creator of small, sacred worlds within herself, where breath becomes prayer and the body becomes home.
Ciça wrote her story on her skin... with verses from Manoel de Barros, with words that only make sense in the language of the soul, with symbols that act as portals to the past and whispers from the future.
And then came the breaking year.
One of those years when love turns to thorns, work becomes a weight, and freedom feels like a labyrinth.
A year where even the attempt to begin again led to deeper falls, literally. A motorbike crash, bruising her body. But the soul had already begun to call for help in silence.
Even then, Ciça was poetry.
She bought a yoga course before she could even walk again.
She planted a seed in a future she wasn’t sure she could reach.
She went back to her parents’ home, with her body in pain and her heart on pause. She spent months in silence.
Relearning.
Re-rooting.
Now, piece by piece, she’s coming back together.
But not the same pieces, with the new ones.
Because Ciça isn’t returning to who she was.
She’s returning to what she can feel.
And that changes everything.
She is the soul of Identity Echoes.
Because Ciça is made of echoes.
Every version of her is not an escape—it’s a return. Every new transformation carries, deep within it, all the others. She is a spiral. A road that folds and curves, but always moves forward.
Today, she’s also the mermaid aunt to my daughter. The one who smells like the sea and gives the kind of long hugs that rearrange your nervous system. The one who understands that presence is the only true medicine. That affection doesn’t need a reason—only time.
Ciça, maybe you still don’t realize this, but you are one of the most powerful forces I’ve ever met.
You are tenderness with a backbone.
You are the sum of your rebirths, of the phases that no longer fit, of the dreams you dared to unfold until they became reality.
You are the miracle of being so many things—and still, so deeply, so unmistakably you.
And when the world forgets what it’s capable of becoming, may it be lucky enough to cross paths with you.
Because where you go, something blooms.
And where you dance… even the ground learns to breathe differently.
I strongly encourage you to visit https://www.instagram.com/cica.milk/ and get connected with her.
Ciça is the kind of soul who reminds you what’s sacred about being alive.
About Identity Echoes
Identity Echoes is a living, breathing storytelling project that celebrates the ever-changing nature of being. It was born from the idea that identity is not fixed—it’s fluid, dynamic, a constant act of becoming. We are not one version of ourselves—we are many. Layered. Echoing.
This project is for those who have shapeshifted through love, loss, healing, joy, grief, and silence. It’s for the ones who’ve reinvented themselves a hundred times and still manage to stay honest. It's for the ones who carry pieces of every former self inside them, like notes in a song only they can sing.
Through stories, rituals, presence, and collective memory, Identity Echoes honors each evolution, each unraveling, each return. We believe every person holds multitudes—and every version deserves to be seen, celebrated, and held.
Here, we don’t ask:
“Who are you?”
We ask:
“Who have you been? Who are you becoming? And what echoes still live inside you?”
This is not a destination.
It’s a sacred crossing.
And thanks to souls like Ciça, we are reminded that the journey itself is the medicine.