The Journey Towards Me
(Memoir Excerpt) At 8 years old my parents hadn’t taught me how to ride a bike, nurture a friendship, or the importance of following through when you commit to something. But they had taught me how to cheat at cards, how to wear a fake smile, and how to keep secrets from the ones who trusted […]
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(Memoir Excerpt) I had been on the ship for about a month when we pulled into Barcelona. The ocean was calm, not a cloud in the sky. The sun had just risen quickly in a florescent rose glittery tone. The fresh crisp air promised a golden day. I walked down the boardwalk and saw the […]
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(Memoir excerpt) I was driving across the country again. It had been a few months since I left home. Who knows where I was coming from or where I was headed. I think my last stop had been in Memphis. It was three o’clock in the morning. I had been driving a long time, a few days […]
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(Memoir excerpt) I had only been working on the cruise ship a few weeks when a group of suits came onboard. We were told to be on our best behavior. They were the bosses, the owners, and the managers from V-Ships. One of them, a shorter man in his early thirties with bone-straight brown hair […]
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I believe that I have discovered what my life theme is. I don’t know why I’ve been so obsessed with figuring this out. I think it’s because I feel like if I can determine what it is, I’ll understand what to do with it. “Your life theme is motion” A young woman in my writing […]
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(Memoir excerpt) When I first arrived in Paris I immediately loved it. Maybe I had watched too many movies but it felt romantic. I had read so many Henry miller books I felt like I already knew the city. It didn’t pretend to be fancy or flashy or perfect. The cab drivers were rude, people […]
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By the time I was in my last year of high school, I hadn’t read one full novel from start to finish. I found my English class material drab and unrelatable. Besides, I could read the cliffsnotes or skim over the chapters and still have a conversation about the main plot points (and pass the comprehension test), so […]
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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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Go Ruby Garnay 