I Was Welcomed Home by Deb Day

I am at heart a solitary writer. I started writing as a young girl, inspired by the book Harriet the Spy. I kept diaries and journals. I wrote bad poetry on scraps of paper. Started novels. And it all went unread by anyone but me.

That changed in 2011 when I heard about the Slice of Life challenge at Two Writing Teachers. You had to write a blog post every day in March.

And share it.

Uncharacteristically, I created Coffee With Chloe and wrote my first post. When it came time to share the link, I remember hesitating. Would anyone even read it? And who would respond? This was the scariest thing I had done in a long time.

But I did share.

I kept writing. People actually read my posts and responded. A few here. A few there. We connected. I began following many of the slicers and looked forward to reading their writing. I wrote on Tuesdays following the challenge and kept in contact with the others. These writers became my friends. I counted on them to visit me and have a conversation whenever I wrote.

Ruth and Christy, Linda and Elsie, Michelle, Donna, and Ramona, Jenn M and Terje. These women are the points on my writing compass.

Events happened in my circle that threw that compass out of whack for awhile. I felt lost in the writing world. But each time I began writing again, with a promise I wouldn’t quit, these women welcomed me back. They reminded me again and again that my story mattered. Their unfailing support is just what I need. This community of writers keeps me coming back.

And then, I found this notebook gathering dust in a pile. A gift from Christy a couple of years ago, it became a gentle nudge from an old friend, even though she didn’t know it.

I joined the #TeachWrite Tribe Facebook group in January and found a new tribe of teacher-writers. New compass points to help me find my way. There were old friends like Margaret and Michelle and LeighAnne and some new ones, like Jennifer, Andy and Mark.

So I wrote.
And I shared.
And I was welcomed home.


Deb Day taught many different English classes during her twenty-eight year teaching career. Creative Writing was her favorite class to teach in the last years of her career because she could write and share with her students. She is married, the mother of two and grandmother of six. She is owned by Chloe, seven-year-old Goldendoodle. All of this provides plenty of material for her blog, Coffee With Chloe.