Marion Geoffray

I can perfectly remember the day I moved from the South of France to London, 12 years ago in January. It was a very cold grey day in Avignon train station, I was loaded like a mule with bags and suitcases filled with dreams ready to board the Eurostar that would take me to my new life, a life I had been carefully planning throughout my teenage years. I was 20, full of hopes and ambitions, brimming with excitement and naivety, I was about to make my dreams come true. Of course, the reality of becoming an actress in the UK was a lot different than what I had envisaged, there's been many struggles and challenges, heartaches and desillusions but there's also many boxes ticked on my dream to-do list. For that, I would board that train again in a heartbeat! From London to Birmingham and Shropshire to then finally settle in Bonnie Scotland where I am now.

I am proud to call myself an "adopted Scots", making a living as an actor and theatre-maker in Edinburgh, being part of a very supportive and inclusive diverse community, and feeling more European and Scottish now than before. I've grown my own roots across the country alongside routes that I've drawn with time, passion and determination. I chose to come and live in the UK, to create my own life and make myself a home away from home. It came at the price of leaving my old home behind, my family, my friends, missing out on precious memories. Those roots tug on me all the time. These gold bangles are a constant reminder of where I come from. One of them, I inherited from my late grandmother when she passed away, the other one, I was gifted as a child. I never take them off and I have actually outgrown them which always grant me a longer security check time at airports. But I love the idea that I take my younger self and grandmother with me wherever I go. These bangles are the golden lifelines of my past forever intertwining with the yet unwritten ones of the future. I know then, that wherever I go, I am always home.