I Wasn't Always Like This

Some people claim they'd like to walk away from their lives -- Shelley A. Leedahl had the nerve to do it. Was it selfishness, or self-preservation?

Drawing upon childhood memories, hikes, road trips, foreign travel, her self-imposed exile to a prairie village, fortuitous meetings with strangers, and her compulsion for starting over, again and again, Leedahl has crafted a provocative and candid collection of essays that explore the implicit complexities and contradictions when personal and professional lives both complement and clash. Can a writer be a good mother when her calling requires her to be away -- sometimes countries away -- from her school-aged children? And why are some people more themselves with strangers in foreign lands than with their own kith and kin? Along the way, parental dilemmas, relationship breakdowns, new love, and emotional chaos make their presence felt in this engaging work. The interior life of a writer dedicated to her craft is revealed for what it is -- joyous and forlorn, singular and relatable.