The Journey Towards Me
When I was a little girl, I inherited a big old bedroom set. It had been my grandmother’s, and then my mother’s, and now it was mine. It was made of solid oak and had many pieces- a big-girl bed, two large dressers, a vanity, a night stand and a grand mirror. It had a myriad of lines and curves […]
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I’m working on a piece for International Women’s Day (coming up March 8th). I’ve been asked to write a memoir essay on a woman who encouraged or inspired me growing up, who taught me patience and self-love and brought me into womanhood. I’ve chosen to write an essay about the time I visited my grandmother in […]
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Every once in a while you need to start your day with a good old cat video… This one also happens to include one of the loves of my life, my very own, Miche. He’s my 16 year old rescue cat. Happy Valentine’s Day 🙂
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I’m in the middle of writing the book proposal for my memoir, and I’m feeling overwhelmed. Why does my story need to be told? Why will people care? I feel like I’m out in the water flapping around trying to figure out my footing. It reminds me of this time I was in Thailand. I had […]
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(Memoir Excerpt #8) I was six years old when I first tried to hitchhike out of my suburban neighborhood. We lived on a quiet upper-middle class street in Toronto, Canada. Our house backed onto a golf club. I wasn’t allowed to play in the backyard because my mom claimed she had sometimes found golf balls back there, […]
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(Memoir Excerpt #7) Between eating apples, we worked nonstop from 7a.m. to 4:30p.m. That’s when the man came around to collect the tags from our filled-up crates, and pay us our hard earned cash. Our bodies were completely exhausted, but giddy with excitement at the idea of going to the grocery store and cooking a big […]
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(Memoir Excerpt #6) As we pulled up onto the long gravelly road, morning hadn’t even broken yet. A scraggly unshaven man in his 40s popped out the side door and greeted us. He was holding a couple of large canvas bags, “Let me show you around”. We followed him through a maze of large leafy trees […]
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(Memoir Excerpt #5) After our celebratory dinner of green onion sandwiches, I knew it was about time I called my mother. I had been gone a week and a half and save for my note on the kitchen fridge and two messages I left for her on the voicemail at home when I knew she […]
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A few weeks ago I was in the drivers seat two cars deep waiting at a busy red light in an upscale Beverly Hills intersection when I looked over and saw a man standing on the corner. He looked like he was in his fifties, smooth dark skin and good posture. He was holding a rectangle […]
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(Memoir Excerpt #4) It had been a week and a half and we had driven 2500 miles across the country. Once we crossed the border into British Columbia we emptied our wallets and searched through the car for any stray coins and laid out all the money we had left. We had $28.75. If we […]
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(Memoir Excerpt #3) I felt like french explorer, Jacques Cartier, stumbling across one hill at a time. Sketching out the lay of unchartered land in my journal and deciding where to stake my sword. After a few days on the road I was learning more about geography than any class in school ever taught me. We […]
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(Memoir Excerpt #2) It was peaceful driving at night. The temperature had dropped and we had the heat on in the car. The highway was dark and only illuminated by my dim headlights. There weren’t very many cars on the road; just massive 18-wheel trucks blasting by us every once in a while. Chuck and I were […]
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(Memoir Excerpt #1) So, this is where my story actually began. The day I ran away from home. I was 17 years old, in my last year of high school, when I ran away from home and ended up traveling around the world for five years. I’ve been trying to understand why I ran away, […]
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I met Dover at orientation in the gymnasium of our Arts High School on the first day of ninth grade. She was a dance major and I was in theater. She had long dark brown Italian hair and perfect skin. She was fierce and brave and I liked her immediately. I like to think that we were […]
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I was 12 when my dad announced that he was retiring. He had made a bunch of money on a big real estate deal and decided he was taking the money and moving 1400 miles away to St. Petersburg, Florida. “You can call me whenever you want” he said as he handed me his business […]
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“I want to live with daddy” I whined as I tearfully moped around the house for the first few months after my parents split. I walked room to room crying, following my mother as she picked up laundry, throwing myself on the bed she was trying to make. “Your father doesn’t want you!” she finally snapped […]
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Go Ruby Garnay 