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About Me — Brina Patel
A Desi girl with an affinity for all things writing, travel, and bookish
Well, hello!
My name is Brina. (Or, as autocorrect likes to call me, Brian.) It’s not short for SaBrina, although I was definitely a teenage witch.
I’m 27 years old and a somewhat recent transplant to Sacramento, California. I’ve been lucky enough to live, either temporarily or long-term, in several cities over the globe — from Santa Barbara to London to Mysore — though my heart, first and foremost, belongs to Northern California. I was born and raised here in a small cow town called Turlock. My family is Gujarati in origin, and despite being a bit rusty nowadays, Gujarati was my first language.
I’ve been imaginative since I was a little kid; my mind stretching to far-off lands and possibilities. The first ever “novel” I wrote involved a family getting stranded on Angel Island. Creating stories and getting lost in hypothetical scenarios propelled me forward in a world that always made me feel stuck.
I was a shy, anxious kid. Those qualities still linger, just adultified. Books and writing have allowed me to cultivate a voice, to take up space. Oh, and travel, too.
In fact, when I was in my early twenties (I say, as if I’m a septuagenarian now), I was lucky…
