Writing Prompt: Where I Come From

Do you regularly free write? Do you wish you did? Several times a month, we’ll post a writing prompt. Open a notebook or a blank page and keep your hand moving for 10 minutes. Don’t worry about grammar or punctuation – just write. 

Then, share a link to your free write in the comments section below. We’d love to see what you did with this week’s prompt!
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This time of year always makes me think of the past. Of tradition. Of the night before Thanksgiving, when a group of my oldest friends always gathers before dispersing to spend the holiday with family. We select a restaurant (or, in the old days, a dorm room), sip wine, share stories.

Now we are scattered, with many expats and career moves and children among us. Still a core group carries on. For over twenty years, we have found each other on this night.

And no matter where I am on that Wednesday, I think of where I come from, of what comes next. Of how, as with every holiday, we mark time, year after year.

I come from Greyhound buses snaking their way around the curves of the New Jersey Turnpike.

I come from sitting on the sidelines or holding hands in synagogue hallways at yearly youth group dances.

I come from diners off Route 38, linked arms, inside jokes, and cheese fries.

I come from sleeping bags thrown unceremoniously onto friends’ floors and soft whispers on late nights.

I come from early rising and returns home.

I come from brothers and sisters and family dance parties in the den.

I come from the faint buzz of the football game in the background.

I come from Indiana Jones movies and bean bag chairs in the basement while the adults clink cocktails and set tables upstairs.

I come from long drives to upstate New York, cousin-built forts, and pecan pie.

I come from leaf piles in the front yard and monkey in the middle and red rover, red rover until we collapse, breathless, laughing, on the cold hard ground.

Today, free write about where you come from.
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Do YOU have a writing prompt to share with Literary Mama readers? Send your 150- to 300-word narrative and associated writing prompt to lmblogcontact (at) literarymama (dot) com. We’d like to hear your ideas!