This is so fun: “Where are you from?”

 

Today I’m delighted to share with you one of my most favorite writing projects ever.

 

I have a hunch you’ll love it, too. It’s called Where I’m From.

 

Based on a piece by George Ella Lyon, you can take a jaunt—a pleasant meander, a treasure hunt—that leads you to “the sources of your unique you-ness that you’d never considered before,” according to her old website.

 

George Ella Lyon’s Where I’m From begins this way:

 

‘I am from clothespins,

From Clorox and carbon-tetrachloride.

I am from the dirt under the back porch.

(Black, glistening,

it tasted like beets.)

I am from the forsythia bush

the Dutch elm

whose long-gone limbs I remember

as if they were my own. . . .”

 

(Click here to read more of her piece and how she got started with this adventure.)

 

Here is an excerpt from the “Where I’m From” essay Ann Kroeker wrote:

 

“I am from the persimmon tree, ripe fruit dropping, splitting, squishing soft into the grassy lawn below. I am from sweet-spring lilac and lily-of-the-valley. . . . I am from soybean and corn fields, hay and straw, and Black Angus cattle. . . .” (Click here to read more of Ann’s essay.)

 

My own attempt to write of where I’m from has been great fun. And it’s many pages long!

 

Where are you from?

 

Your own Where I’m From essay

is valuable material for your memoir.

It adds details and richness and pizzazz

and personality to your stories.

 

Lyon’s template (which I can no longer find online) suggests you write something like the following:

 

I am from ______ (specific, ordinary item), from _____ (product name) and _____.

 

I am from the _____ (home description . . . adjective, adjective, sensory detail).

 

I am from the _____ (plant, flower, natural item).

 

I am from _____ (family tradition) and _____ (family trait), from _____ (name of family member).

 

I am from _____ (something you were told as a child).

 

I am from the ________________ (description of family tendency) and ____________ (another one).

 

I am from _____ (representation of religion, or lack of it). Further description.

 

I’m from ___________ (place of birth and family ancestry), and ___________ (two food items representing your family).

 

From the ___________ (specific family story about a specific person and detail), the ______________ (another detail), and the ______________ (another detail about another family member).

 

I am from _____________ (location of family pictures, mementos, archives and several more lines indicating their worth).

 

Lyon’s template is a good place to start—but think of it as a jumping-off spot. Feel free to soar way beyond it. Branch out in new directions.

 

For example, consider including:

 

song lyrics, poems, Bible verses,

sounds, sights, smells, tastes, textures,

popular hobbies and pastimes,

hairstyles, shoe styles, and fashion trends.

 

What information, even everyday stuff, might your kids, grandkids, and great-grands never guess about you?

 

A word of caution:

Writing “Where I’m From”

can be addictive.

Keep a pen and paper on your nightstand.