I was born on July 4th, 1998. Sochaux, France, was where I grew up. At first, my parents could barely get me to shut up, I was a very vocal child, but I started to worry them when it came time for me to learn my first words. In fact, deep into my childhood I did not speak a word. I could write and understand two languages but never speak a word of them.

Mutism encouraged bullying as you can imagine, the kids never understood why I could not talk and spent breaktimes trying to make me say something, anything. What I would have given to talk at that point, to scream, to suddenly not be the centre of attention. Apart from a few friends I did not have the greatest of social lives. Now I know what you're thinking, how does this all lead to the life I have now? Well one thing that school did right was having a week, just before the summer holidays devoted to treating the pupils. Anything from theme parks, to bowling, and of course, circus training.

I will not lie to you and say that actually I had an incredible desire to start working for the circus, it was an accident if anything. A silent pupil is a model student but I was also a forgetful one. I hadn't handed in my choices in the first year and before you know it, I was stuck in whatever fit. Which meant my friends were off to a theme park and I was stuck with the others who had clearly forgotten as well. "Circus Stars" They were called, or "Cirque Étoiles" in my home tongue and they were clearly a group who had been hired off a whim by the headmaster. However, once they had got me juggling, tightrope walking and seeing the elegance of the aerial silk performers I was hooked. I took up gymnastics, took physical comedy classes, and I found I excelled.

I spent the rest of my life in school focussing on gymnastics, even winning a few competitions through it. But soon enough, after education, I found that a philosophy degree and a few medals didn't amount to much. Being a mute stops you from being able to take up many jobs, customer service is obvious, offices want you to talk during meetings. They aren't allowed to discriminate but it doesn't mean they won't find creative solutions as to why they won't hire you. But the circus, well they're a little more forgiving. Of course we're past the freak shows and old fashioned ways, instead they found my passions intriguing and a clown; well a clown can be anything! Sad clowns, happy clowns, clowns that talk a lot and clowns that don't at all. Mine was a blend of mime and physical acts, though I was also a backup gymnast when someone was sick or injured. And with the circus we travelled the world.

That was until London. Brexit made it hard to move around and it was just cheaper to stay there, the circus made enough money to keep going. I didn't but that never stopped me from finding my own means of getting by. So nowadays that's my life, circus performing and weapons stashing on the down low. Life's uncomfortable but not miserable. And much as I would like a more equitable world, in the end there's only so much I can do as a mute clown.