Coming Home

Finding my way back to myself

Photo by Kolby Milton on Unsplash

I have to admit that working on my Rebel MFA Degree Update article brought up a lot of emotions for me. First, I realized just how little I celebrate my accomplishments and achievements. Seeing it written out, it felt different than intellectually thinking about it. And yet, my natural inclination is to just shrug it all off.

Coming Back Home to Writing

I told Allie, my co-collaborator for The Augurly, that I felt like I’d finally come back home to myself after realizing how much fiction writing I was doing again. And, of course, that prompted us to think about what that means in a larger sense of the word (thus, the theme this month). I’ve taken that question to heart, too. What does it mean to come home to one’s self?

I had an interesting conversation with my sister when we were in Dublin. It has stuck with me since and had me asking myself a lot of questions. She said (and I’m paraphrasing here), “You’re different when you’re with people like this. Happier, lighter, confident, funny. You’re not like that with your family.”

Yes, that stung. But she wasn’t wrong, either. It’s because I’ve never particularly felt “as home” in my family world as I have in the writing world. I think everyone has aspects of this. My sister is one of the most passionate…