The Longest Lap | Charles Leclerc

prologue

I met Juliette in 4th grade. It was funny because we probably would have had nothing to do with each other if it weren't for our parents. We couldn't be more opposite. I was reserved and guarded, Juliette was exuberant and open. The summer before high school, Juliette told me I was the only person she liked all the time. I told her the same. Now at 24, either of us would say that still held true.

We went to private school, it's how our parents met. Something about foreigners recognizing foreigners. That's what my mother always said. Our moms met first, at a parent meeting.

Juliette, like me, was a product of two incredibly wealthy Europeans. Her dad was French, and her mother was from Monaco. My mom and dad were both from Italy. Now at my age, it's so ironic that we just so happened to connect. But when I was younger we both thought it was the craziest thing ever.

My mom invited Juliette and her parents over and the rest was quite literally history. We were practically joined at the hip. Grade school, middle school, high school, college, and so on. Juliette and I had been gallivanting through Europe all summer and had been living in Monaco now. Her parents moved back to Monaco after she graduated college and gave her two years to get the traveling bug out. Juliette was going to start working under her mother in hopes of eventually becoming CEO the same way her mother did. My parents stayed in the US but were planning to make their way back to Italy in the next two years or so.

So what brought me to Monaco besides Juliette? My mother always told me I was destined for big things, "eri destinata alle notizie da prima pagina Luisa". You're destined for front page news Luisa.

I always laughed at that sentient. Me? Front page news. My mom modeled when she was my age, then went on to work for Vogue Italia. When she had me with my father they stuck around for a few years then moved to the US, they had always wanted a change of pace. I never understood that though. I shuddered at the thought. The last few months had been the best of my life, who would ever want to leave Europe?

But, back to ending up in Monaco. In my freshmen year of college, as Juliette would say, I started my social media rise to fame. I told her it wasn't that serious, yet here I am. I ended up getting quite the social media following, it was like just for fun at first. But ever so slowly did it become much of my life. So, when Juliette wanted to travel I joined. It gave gallons of content and well, people liked it. It was fun creating for people, I'd finally felt like I found my thing.

Juliette insisted that I come to Monaco, she said it would be great for my platform. And it had been so far. I always told Juliette if the CEO thing failed she could manage my career. She assured me she could do both.

I'd been in Monaco for about four months, maybe a little more. I'd gotten adjusted relatively quickly. And I suppose I was a foreigner, but I absolutely refused to admit so.