Latest Stories
Most recently published stories in Wander.
3,000 Miles
While I love them dearly and each one holds a place in my heart, my home is not my friends or my family. It isn’t where I was born, where I grew up or where I made the most memories. Home for me is a place I’d fantasized about visiting and living in for almost seven years. A place that I wasn’t able to go see until this year, for the weekend of my 23rd birthday.
By Kirsy Massiel5 years ago in Wander
My Home
There have been so many times I’ve said, “I am going home” referring to a place that was not actually my home. Like the times I’ve been on vacation and told a group of new friends I just met that I was “heading home”, but really I was just going back to the cute little Airbnb I’d rented for the week. It was not really home, but it felt that way while I was there. I am sure many of you can relate. I tend to be on the more adaptable side, making myself comfortable in these places. Forgetting that after seven or ten, days I will no longer be there. I will pack up my things and go back to my “real” home. There’s a specific feeling there - when you’ve gotten used to this new space, and your new surroundings. But, at the same time, you’re yearning to be in your own bed, in your own house. And you cannot wait to get home. Home, what does it mean?
By Christina Viola5 years ago in Wander
The First Snow of 2021
The first snow of the 2020-2021 winter season in Texas leaves little to be desired. Why, Mother Earth? Christmas and Thanksgiving and Halloween are supposed to be the epicenter for cold weather, sweaters, cozying up by the fire, next to the person you love. So, why snow now, on Valentine's Day, of all the days? I should know better than to expect each year to be the same, sometimes it snows in November, sometimes it snows in March. Every state can probably claim they experience all the seasons in one day, but after living in Texas almost my whole life and traveling to other states, I am a little biased to say Texas wins that debate. This Winter blast is rather surprising but I can't say we weren't warned that it was coming soon. Temperatures started dropping about a week ago from 60º Fahrenheit to 30º Fahrenheit. Although it's not completely reliable, the Texas weather apps, were on the money with this one. (Sometimes the readings are a little off is all I mean.)
By Shasta Scott5 years ago in Wander
Torino--My New Hometown
Torino (Turin) sits in northwestern Italy, at the foot of the Alps. It is the capital city of the Piemonte Region—Piemonte meaning foot of the mountains. The history of Torino goes back thousands of years while my history with the bella città only goes back about three.
By Steven Anthony5 years ago in Wander
Old Stomping Grounds
There is a term I like to throw around when discussing the best hometown features and reminiscing good old nostalgia. Its coined old stomping grounds! (Where I'm not actually stomping ground, ya know its um...a figure of speech, an idiom as you will. Gosh, who remembers those?!)
By Mark Smith5 years ago in Wander
On Traveling
I’ve settled into a quasi-routine in my life back at home, filling days with spin classes and Word documents and what probably averages out to five cups of coffee per day. It’s a lovely routine, but it is just that — a routine. And I’ve come to realize that nothing should be routine in your 20s.
By Maija-Liisa Ehlinger5 years ago in Wander
Welcome to Depew
My hometown has a population of around 550 people, not counting cousins who visit extended family members until their earlier transgressions subside enough for them to return home. The population of Depew, Oklahoma, America has neither swollen nor retracted to any noticeable degree over the past fifty years, but I prefer to use the cousin analogy. I would rather spin a story than recite dry facts.
By Jay Michael Jones5 years ago in Wander
The Railroad Tracks to My Past
As the years pass and the collection of places I have called home grows, I am starting to appreciate that I will carry pieces of each with me. As I prepare to embark on a nomadic lifestyle by living out of a converted school bus, the idea of home is on my mind. Indulge me in nostalgia as I explore my conceptual building blocks of home, while paying homage to the first and longest place that I have ever lived.
By Emma Bradley-Island5 years ago in Wander
