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Elodie comes from parents who divorced at a very young age and has one sister. Elodie was raised by her mother in a very modest suburb of Paris. With great sincerity, Elodie told me about her parents, her family and how she perceived them.

“My mother is a role model for me”. In her eyes, her mother is a model of courage. Brave, the latter was so because she was a freelance nurse for years, she managed to climb the ladder in the medical field and is currently the director of an elderly care home. “My mother’s desire has always been an example to follow”.

“For years my father did things he didn’t like to do”. In Elodie’s eyes, her father’s a resilient guy. He’s been looking out for himself for a long time. He is currently a lead salesman in a ready-to-wear fashion store.

Let the reader make no mistake. These words were not pronounced as value judgments by Elodie, but with much of the love she received from both her parents. The suburbs, far from being perceived as a difficult area to live in, seem to have brought Elodie some contentment. The cultural mix, the popular environment, even in modest circumstances, provided Elodie with an environment that opened her mind to others. “I’m better off now and I’m very afraid that my children won’t have the opportunity to get to know this working-class environment. It is a form of wealth”.

One of the singular points of Elodie’s childhood is an early conviction instilled by her mother. It’s the belief that no matter how modest a household she was in, she could do anything. Feeling “capable of anything”, this conviction carried Elodie through life, and even created the young girl she was. “I know today that if I want to, I can do it”.