Tonight’s I Write Out Loud live turned into one of those conversations that wandered all over the place while somehow still circling the same core question: what does it mean to build a life that actually feels like home?
We started with my essay “My Daughter Was Looking for a College. I Was Looking For a Way Out,” and the strange emotional reality of preparing to launch a child into a world that feels increasingly unstable. But from there, the conversation widened into parenting, creativity, aging, money, immigration, Seattle, art, music, and the invisible line between supporting your kids and letting them become themselves.
I talked about the difference between visiting a place and belonging to it. About moving to Seattle at 26 and realizing this city has now known me longer than almost anyone else has. About whether my daughters—who have EU citizenship through their dad—might someday build a life somewhere entirely different than the one that shaped me.
You can read the essay here:
Thank you Dr. Amber Hull, Harry Hogg, Mona Mona, Lynette, ShālahBPookie - TheRebelCrone, A Word, Please, from Adi Weiss, 💨Ashley Schmitt™️, and many others for tuning in.
Special thanks to my Founding Members: Pietra Shirley, Suzanne Whitaker, Karen Marie Shelton, Mason/She/Her🩷💜💙, Alan Wiley, Craig Weissman, and Shālah B Pookie. You’re the very best and I’m so grateful for your support.
Thanks for listening.
I’m Dana DuBois, an essayist and GenX word nerd living in the Pacific Northwest — and founder of I Write Out Loud and co-host of The Daily Whatever Show.
Through memoir writing, audio storytelling, and community spaces, I explore the larger cultural forces shaping relationships, feminism, parenting, media, modern dating, and life in mid-flight.
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