I’m new to recovery, so I’m still learning a lot about myself and what that all means. I’ve been a student since kindergarten and a teacher for about nine years, and I’ve recently had the thought that I know a lot more about the subjects I teach or study - English and Latin - than I do about myself.

Literature and language have long been salves and sources of wisdom in my life, and as I waded into recovery I found that even stories I’d known and taught prior to this year held lessons in them that I hadn’t seen before.

Writing has always been a way for me to make sense of things - whether that’s through poetry or prose - which is how this blog started. I was writing in notebooks and letters to loved ones when I started recovery, and though I wanted to do something with my ideas, I didn’t have a clear sense of what that something would be. One of my people, a sister, suggested I write an essay when we were having a conversation about Taylor Swift, whose song “Anti Hero” was playing on her Spotify in the car one day, and that suggestion set me on the path to building this site.

I’m writing about what I know to be true for me, and that may or may not ring true to everyone reading my words; but I want to share my experience because it may help someone to read something that speaks the language in which their own heart has been trying to communicate.

I have several people who helped make the vision for this site a reality, and I am ever grateful for their guidance and support.

-D