Existing is one thing, living is another. There are people who belong to that rare breed of women who have decided not to apologise for the space they occupy in the world. Hers is not a story of travel, but a story of resistance: against narrow, mindedness, labels, and that “normal” life which is often just a polite way to hide the fear of change.
THE COURAGE NEVER TO STAND STILL.
For her, standing still isn’t security, it’s suffocation. Putting your life inside a suitcase isn’t a game; it’s an act of faith. It’s the search for a balance where every move serves to find oneself again, to strip away old habits and make room for the new. It’s not dissatisfaction: it’s a burning curiosity, a refusal to let oneself be extinguished by days that are all the same. She understood that to truly learn, one must first have the courage to forget everything we were sold as “right.”
BEYOND JUDGEMENT: A STRENGTH THAT BREAKS THE SILENCE.
Too often, the world looks at a woman on the move and thinks of an escape. She responds with the strength of someone who knows exactly where she is going. She doesn’t run from problems; she faces them, walking right beside them. Her mission in the hospitality trade is a brave choice: changing the rules of the game for the next generation of bartenders, fighting for fairer and more human spaces, transforming a job into an act of care and justice. Her project, Agite Club, isn’t just a business; it’s the reflection of a woman who fiercely believes in what she does and doesn’t wait for anyone’s permission to move it forward.
THE ARMOUR AND THE SILENCE.
Being strong doesn’t mean being invincible. She knows fragility well, as well as the weight of the superficiality that surrounds us. Her superpower is having created a home without walls, made of people who are pure freedom. A chosen family, where she can finally take off her armour and stop fighting. Between music, the sea, and a book, she finds her essence—the one that doesn’t have to prove anything to anyone.
WITHOUT SHAME: THE ONLY WAY TO LIVE.
The real clash was against the narrow-mindedness of those who want women to be composed, silent, and predictable. It took years to shake off that shame that society stitches onto us from the time we are small, to stop playing the role of the “good girl” everyone likes. Today, that mask has fallen. In its place is a professional who dreams of telling the world’s story with the brutal honesty of Anthony Bourdain and who tells anyone stuck in fear: “Start, now. Opportunities don’t fall from the sky; you have to create them.”Raiza has stopped seeking the approval of others and has started living by her own rules.
THIS IS HER MANIFEST, WRITTEN IN HER OWN HAND, DEDICATED TO ANYONE WHO FINALLY WANTS TO FEEL FREE:
“They taught me to be ashamed of my body, of my actions, of my thoughts.
They taught me that what I think is absurd, that what I do is ridiculous, that what I desire is dirty.
And I learned not to say what I thought. I learned not to do what I felt like doing, out of shame. Afraid that someone around me might think it was inappropriate.
I learned not to chase what I desired, out of shame that others might judge it as improper.
Not content with submitting to the external gaze, I also surrendered to borrowed shame.
I learned to ask shame how to behave, just in case I was out of place.
I learned to listen to shame when undressing, just in case I felt comfortable in my body and grew used to showing it without fear.
And I stopped dancing.
I stopped laughing out loud.
I stopped scratching my ass.
I stopped asking what I didn’t understand.
I stopped voicing what I thought.
I stopped sharing what I felt.
I stopped asking for help.
I stopped walking without a bra.
I stopped going out into the street however I pleased.
I stopped wearing loose clothes.
I stopped calling the ones I missed.
I stopped taking initiative.
I stopped saying no.
I stopped saying yes.
I stopped admitting that I was scared.
And by feeling more ashamed every single day, I understood that my shame would never be satisfied.
So I went looking for my shameless self. It took her a while to come out. She was shy, ironically.
But eventually she took me dancing, sang duets with me, went out partying by my side, encouraged me to speak, to shout what I think, to demand to be heard, to ignore the things I was supposedly meant to be ashamed of.
And now I no longer have time for shame.
I’M BUSY LIVING.”
