WHEN I WAS 7 YEARS OLD, I CRIED AND SAID I WAS GOING TO MARRY MY NEIGHBOR. I WENT TO A JOB INTERVIEW 15 YEARS LATER — THE GENERAL MANAGER LOOKED AT ME AND SMILED: ‘THE GENERAL MANAGER… DID YOU APPLY TO BE HIS WIFE?

When I was seven years old, everyone in our neighborhood in Izmir was my most… She knew I was a stubborn girl.

I was stubborn because one day I stood in the middle of the courtyard of the apartment building, with tears and snot, pointing to my neighbor ten years older than me, shouting in front of all the adults:

“I will marry Emre when I grow up! I will not marry anyone else!”

The neighborhood burst into laughter.

My mother, in shame and anger, grabbed me by the ear and dragged me home.
Emre, on the other hand, was red up to his ears and stayed there without knowing what to do.

“Foolish girl, what do you know about these things?” the elders mocked.

But I remember that day very clearly. Emre leaned over, patted my head and said in a soft voice:

“You say this when you grow up. For now, study hard.”

I nodded without hesitation.

From that day on, I had a very clear goal in my mind: to grow up, to read well… and marrying Emre.

## My Neighbor

Emre was a loved one in the neighborhood. He was tall, intelligent and respectful. He lost his parents at a young age and lived with his grandmother in the house next to mine.

When I was in the first grade of primary school, he was already a university student.

Every evening he would sit on the stairs of the apartment and watch me play in the courtyard with a book in his hand.