Relegated to the margins of her social circle, a young girl finds her way to the written word and discovers purpose, meaning, and herself in literature.

A coming-of-age essay that explores literature's role in helping a writer overcome her loneliness and find her place in this world.

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There is a power to words that remain unmatched to this day. Strung together in the right order, they can anger, arouse, annoy. They can make or break entire lives, nations, universes.

Our young girl carries her belongings in a duffel bag. She sleeps in twenty-four-hour productivity cafés for students, or in small couches in the basement-level bar Mama manages.

She knows full well by now the magic of words, the power they have to move mountains. One day, she will master wielding them. She will make her father’s voice her own.

For now, she promises herself one thing, and one thing only: she will write herself out of this. She will write like her whole life depends on it—because it does.