Elya G. (ILI) - Dreaminess, Retreat into a World of Fantasies

I loved sewing outfits for my doll; I enjoyed it very much. All kinds of dresses. What I liked was not so much the sewing itself as inventing all sorts of stories in my head while I was sewing—stories with this doll. Her whole life unfolded in my mind: what she was like, who her prince was, what conversations they had. There were many fantasies. Dreams. An entire story took shape in my head, with all the little details. When I finished sewing the dress, I was no longer interested in it; I would just put it away in the closet. What mattered to me was the story of that dress.

The same thing happened when we went to the dacha with my parents. I didn’t like it there, it was boring, so I kept myself occupied by imagining stories. For example, that I had ended up in Koschei’s castle.

I was very interested in being alone with myself. I was a dreamy child.

As for books, I mostly loved adventure stories, historical novels, melodramas, and fairy tales. I don’t like horror stories, and I never did.