“I was nine when I took on an entire empire. Age is no barrier.”
— Tutankhamun Pharaoh
Inscription on the Wishing Cup, a white alabaster chalice found on the floor of Tutankhamun's tomb antechamber by Howard Carter in November 1922. The cup is now in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo.
I became pharaoh at eight or nine years old, in a kingdom still shaking from my father's religious revolution. Nobody chose me for strength. I was chosen because the bloodline demanded it. My name at birth was Tutankhaten. I changed it to Tutankhamun and gave Egypt its gods back. I died before I turned twenty, having barely begun. The wish on this cup was not for power. It was for time, for presence, for eyes open to what is good. You have what I never did: more time than you know how to use. Open your eyes. Begin.