Caminhos e Escolhas

My name is Maria Luísa de Carvalho Lopes, I was born in Lobazes, parish and municipality of Miranda do Corvo, district of Coimbra, into a large family.

My parents – Mário Pedro Lopes and Albertina de Carvalho, also known as Albertina Luísa de Carvalho, rural workers – raised and educated eight children, including a disabled daughter. It wasn't possible for them to provide an education for all their children (who were all intelligent). We all had to work very early on.

Even in primary school I stood out, both in mastering the knowledge specific to that level, as well as in the arts (painting, drawing) and in my behavior, to the point that my teacher motivated my parents to send me to continue my studies and offered to pay for them. At the time, seeing my mother's embarrassment, I refused this offer because I didn't want to be in a position of favoritism compared to my siblings.

As soon as an opportunity arose and my economic conditions allowed, I resumed my studies, attending night classes and always as a working student. With some breaks along the way, I completed my Bachelor's degree in Philosophy and subsequent internship in the field of Educational Training in 1996, the year in which, unexpectedly, my mother passed away.

I have always been very motivated by reading, by knowledge in general, and by the arts in particular. I started writing poetry in middle school (3rd Cycle of Night School), some poems were lost, others I managed to recover. Now, retired, with some free time and a pressing need to feel active and alive, I felt a new awakening to writing and seized the opportunity.

Paths and Choices This is the first of several books I intend to write, if time allows.