home is the place i have not yet traveled to, 
a place i hope to one day know

where i'm familiar and comfortable with
every inch of what i see, it being as much

a part of me as i am a part of it. home is not
a building, something contained to four walls

and a roof dangling over our heads. home is
a concept, a feeling, and an idea. 

you tell me your home is the mountains, 
where you can catch snowflakes on your tongue.

you're comforted by the isolation and nature
all around you, with white Christmases for the family.

i tell you my home is to be determined, possibly
in some far-off land, possibly with a tropical climate.

but you are also my home, so we will settle
into a cabin in the mountains, sledding down

hills and cuddling with cups of hot cocoa. home is
here, for now.

I hope you enjoyed this piece! As someone who wants to get out of her current suburban bubble after high school/college, I have no idea where I hope to call home later on in life. Please let me know if you have any feedback on this piece or any writing challenges you’d like me to try out in the near future. Stay safe and healthy.

Brooke

horseback riding on the shoreline, waters
turning darker shades of blue as the sun goes down
and i'm left with the warm animal under me and
my thoughts of how beautiful life is

wandering with wanderlust across the globe,
from small towns along the Spanish coastline to 
climbing the Great Wall. on top of the world,
experiencing it all

nights out in the city talking to people i've never
met and people i'll never see again, a sticky 
warmth enveloping me in the darkness while
the occasional bright light shines my way

too many lives i want to live, too many places i 
want to see, and too many versions of myself
i want to be. one day i'll pack a bag, set out for
adventure, and see which one wins.

I hope you enjoyed this piece! There are so many things I would love to do in life and so many things that I hope to accomplish; it’s sometimes overwhelming, especially being young with most of my life ahead of me. For now, I’ll continue to daydream. 🙂 Please let me know if you have any feedback on this piece or if you have any writing challenges you’d like me to do in the near future. Stay safe and healthy.

Brooke

i ask my friends, don't you ever want to leave this place? 
i'm alone in many ways, this opinion being one of them

from the outside it's a paradise, a beautiful town in a 
beautiful state that draws tourists and transplants alike

but from the inside (my insides) it's a toxic bubble filled
with people that refused to grow up and get out themselves

a hike in the hills, a dip in the pool, a trip to the beach;
experiences that i cherish but that don't change my mind

i long for more. not in the materialistic way, in the way that
i want to feed my soul. i seek new landscapes and new skies,

new roads and new signs on the sides, new grocery stores
and new people watching. i'll latch onto anything as a reason

to leave that's drawing me elsewhere. to where? i don't know.
anywhere sounds desirable when you're looking for a 
 
way out.

I hope you enjoyed this piece! I feel like it sounds a little too cliché, but it comes from the heart. I literally grew up in my dad’s childhood home (my parents bought it from my grandparents but we’ve since moved) and neither of my parents has ever seriously lived anywhere that’s not in this county. I’m dying to experience new things and move onto new places, so I can’t wait for college, and I’m sure lots of other kids my age can relate. Please let me know if you have any feedback on this piece or any writing challenges you’d like me to try out. Stay safe and healthy.

Brooke

speeding down the freeway in California
it's a hot summer day but there's no traffic
around you; most people are coming in
but you're going out and leaving this place.

they say hindsight vision is 20/20, but
the mountains and blue skies blur behind
you. you only have eyes for what lies 
ahead. you could keep driving forever, 

stretching your existence across the country
like a rubber band and scattering the pieces
as you go, but you're going to stop when you 
get that feeling that it's time.

somewhere in the distance, that place awaits you.

I hope you enjoyed this piece! It’s also a short one, but it just felt dreamy. I wish I could go on a road trip and leave the state right now. I’m a few months away from getting my license (actually who knows how long since the DMVs aren’t taking new appointments) and I dream of the days I can drive by myself and/or go on road trips. Please let me know what you thought of this piece and if you have any requests/writing challenges for me to use in the future. Stay safe and healthy.

Brooke

these are the days. June is spent out in the
budding sunshine next to the budding flowers

we bud like flowers in the sunshine. 

June is spent underwater, splashing in the 
pool and skin getting a few shades darker

our skin darkens while we splash underwater.

but we can't really splash underwater. our limbs
cut through the water and continue to be 

surrounded by more water. we are water,
we are sunshine, we are flowers.

we are growing and changing in June with the seasons.

I hope you enjoyed this piece! It was definitely a fun, feel-good one to write. Please let me know if you have any feedback on this piece or any writing challenges you’d like me to try my hand at in the near future. Stay safe and healthy out there– I can’t believe it’s already June.

Brooke