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USA250 Journal Project
Personal Chronicle: July 4, 2025 – July 5, 2026
A gift for reflection. A record of now. A story for what’s next.
✍️ Prompt One: “Who am I?”
I’m Melissa. A mother, a listener, a word-fixer.
Some days I feel like I’m holding the whole house together with paperclips and margin notes. I’m the person who notices the wrong comma in a press release and the tired eyes behind my daughter’s questions.
I work quietly—editing reports that no one sees, transcribing interviews for people I’ll never meet. But that quiet pays for groceries and pencils and library fines. It lets me stay close to Ellie, close enough to catch the sparks when she starts wondering out loud about trilobites or black holes.
I wasn’t born brave. I became it. Out of necessity. Out of love. Out of a hundred small choices to stay, to speak, to keep going.
✍️ Prompt Two: “How did I get here?”
I used to stand in front of a classroom. Chalk on my hands. Books stacked higher than hope. I thought that would be the path—teaching, shaping minds, making space for little learners to feel seen. But when Ellie’s needs outgrew the system, I had to redraw the map.
I left my job. Not because I stopped loving it—but because she needed something different. I turned to words in another way. Freelance copyediting at night. Transcription in the mornings. Fitting work between science projects and spelling tests, between grilled cheese and meltdowns.
We don’t have much, but we have time. And truthfully? That’s worth more.
So how did I get here? I followed the margins. I read between the lines.
And I built a life where my daughter could do the same.
Family
Ellie Bowman – Daughter.
Hank Bowman – Father.
