When I was a kid, I apparently had a bit of an otherworldly air about me.
When I first started elementary school, I was spending most of my time alone making crafts. I remember writing novels and manga stories and binding them together like magazines for my mother to buy. Of course, they came with extra goodies.
I ended up growing into a girl who lived in her own world, powered by a vivid imagination.
By the time I got to junior high school, I was obsessed with science fiction. What excited me most were the movies.
We were living in Cuba back in the 1980s, so there wasn’t anything like a movie theater around. But my parents would always buy videotapes and ask relatives back home to record things and send them over. The whole family would gather around our little tube TV to watch. I still remember the thrill of movies like Blade Runner—and of course the Star Wars trilogy.
Space was my absolute favorite subject.
Maybe it was the night skies blanketed with stars all the way down to the horizon or being able to see Halley’s Comet with my own eyes, but what sealed the deal for me was a science fiction magazine that my father’s colleague lent us.
I became completely wrapped up in that world.
But it wasn’t the galaxies, planets, rockets, spaceships, or astronauts that fascinated me—it was the unidentified flying objects and aliens.
I wanted to meet one.
It was a big ask for a 13-year-old girl.
I truly believed that if I stared up at the sky and wished hard enough, an alien would come to pick me up in their spaceship.
I would slip out of my bed at night and stare out the window, only to find myself asleep on the floor by morning. I repeated this ritual again and again.
I have no memory of when the habit finally faded away.
Last month, there were reports of a UFO being spotted over northern Portugal when several residents of Vila do Conde reported seeing an insect-like object darting irregularly across the sky.
UFO researchers classified it as an “insectoid UFO” rather than the typical saucer-like craft. Insectoid UFOs have winged shapes and movements that resemble a bee or a fly—making them a kind of biomechanical craft that fuses organism and machine.
We had a few reports of UFOs and UAP (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena) in 2024 and 2025 as well. None have been fully explained yet, but several have involved strange lights or movements in the sky, similar to sightings reported in the US.
In the past, these would have likely been brushed off as illusions caused by lights or natural phenomena, but there are far more possibilities with all the drones, aircraft, and satellites these days—which makes the story a little more complicated.
Ironically, while the existence of UFOs is no longer a complete unknown, there are also far more phenomena to serve as practical explanations for the sightings.
Still, some of the old reports remain quite captivating.
In a case from 1954, a young boy who was looking after some goats reportedly witnessed multiple flying crafts along with their occupants.
There were two aliens, both with large heads and large, wide-set eyes. Their mouths were open, with something like antennae on their heads. Both were wearing blue uniforms, and one appeared to be operating a lever-like device. The other apparently just stared at the boy.
Although I’m not as fascinated by space and aliens as I was when I was young, I am a bit more educated about them these days.
It makes me wonder how I would react if I were to encounter one now.
Maybe the 13-year-old me who waited by the window for aliens actually did get to board a spaceship, and then woke up on the floor with her memory erased.
…or maybe I’ve just watched too many sci-fi movies.