Where Am I? Sitka Story Lab Student Anthology
The Island Institute's Sitka Story Lab program released this new book of Southeast Alaskan student writing in May 2016. Called Where Am I?: Stories of Strange Landscapes, Wrong Turns, and New Worlds, the anthology features fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and zany creative experiments that convey the disorientation and the discovery that young people experience, from being in the wilderness to simply growing up. The young writers come from Sitka, Hoonah, Haines, Wrangell, and Skagway, and are as young as nine years old and as old as eighteen. "The writing ranges from fantastic and playful to emotionally moving and dark," said Story Lab Coordinator Sarah Swong. "I'm impressed at how creative and varied these writings are, and at how open students were to feedback and improving their work." The project offered students the chance to write a piece for publication and to hone their writing with an editor.
The Island Institute's Sitka Story Lab program released this new book of Southeast Alaskan student writing in May 2016.
Called Where Am I?: Stories of Strange Landscapes, Wrong Turns, and New Worlds, the anthology features fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and zany creative experiments that convey the disorientation and the discovery that young people experience, from being in the wilderness to simply growing up. The young writers come from Sitka, Hoonah, Haines, Wrangell, and Skagway, and are as young as nine years old and as old as eighteen.
"The writing ranges from fantastic and playful to emotionally moving and dark," said Story Lab Coordinator Sarah Swong. "I'm impressed at how creative and varied these writings are, and at how open students were to feedback and improving their work."
The project offered students the chance to write a piece for publication and to hone their writing with an editor.
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<strong>Where</strong> Would I Be Knowing the<br />
Trista<br />
I have so many questions as to why certain things have happened, or how<br />
it has affected me to be the person I am today. My life gets really complicated<br />
for me to handle to the point where I could care less if I didn’t have a<br />
life. I feel like this because I reflect so much on the past that I can’t let it go<br />
and I have all these emotions built up in me that I feel the need to say and<br />
let go. To this day I think “why” is my biggest question, or why did you do<br />
this, why did this happen. <strong>Where</strong> would I be in life if I didn’t have so many<br />
questions? When I was young, the one person who is supposed to love me<br />
the most just leaves. To know this makes me feel unworthy and not good<br />
enough. I tend to push people away and start to isolate myself from social<br />
gatherings or anything. By not being as social as most people, it’s harder for<br />
me to get up and speak in front of a big group of students.<br />
I have people come up to me asked me about my birth mother and I have<br />
no idea what to say because I don’t even know what happened. What did<br />
I do wrong or was she too addicted to the idea of drinking alcohol. I don’t<br />
think I’ll ever know why. I’ve had someone say to me “I bet your mother<br />
never even loved you,” and to hear those words I thought to myself, you’re<br />
probably right and another part of me thought less of me and went back<br />
to feeling of unworthy. I’ve tried saying my feelings but I shut down. I’ve<br />
found that I’m guarded towards my friends and I don’t tell them a lot about<br />
me or my family. And I think this situation is part as to why I’m guarded<br />
towards certain people and how I don’t open up and let people in. However,<br />
I’ve found that expressing my feelings in writing is easier. And I feel like I<br />
want to say something on how I feel but there’s a part of me that’s afraid of<br />
what people might say or me being wrong on how I feel. I always feel that<br />
people may judge me for what I have to say and this shouldn’t be a big deal;<br />
however, in this situation it is a big deal and I do take it hard. It may seem<br />
like nothing is wrong but deep down everything is wrong and I have so<br />
many questions.<br />
In order for me to move on from this, I need answers but I don’t know if I’ll<br />
ever get answers as to why she left. I have had other people try to answer my<br />
question but it’s not the answer I want and it’s not the right one. <strong>Where</strong> do<br />
106 <strong>Where</strong> <strong>Am</strong> I?
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