Start your story with a character saying “Where I come from, …”

Posted in Middle School on Nov 1, 2022

Submissions are closed

Sorry, we are not accepting submissions for this prompt as it is not part of an active contest. Make sure you don't miss our next contest by creating your free Reedsy Prompts account.

Or create a new Reedsy account:

Why not check out our active contest?

✍️ 85 stories

“I Had A Good Life” by Valerie Preston

Submitted to Contest #164

Where I come from doesn’t matter, its where I’m going to…. I’m old and weary but I’ve had a full life. It will soon be time. I want to go with just Libby by my side – we’ve been together for so long. I’ve left all my instructions with my bank – where my money will go and the whereabouts of my book. No-one ever got to read because I never sent it to the publishers but at least I finished it. Of course Libby will eventually be in a cat home, a good one, but I can’t dwell on that because it makes me feel very melancholy. I’ve organi...

2 comments 2

Read story

“Coca Cola, Sweet Tea, and Jesus” by Rebecca Lefkoff

Submitted to Contest #164

Where I come from Coke is a generic work for any carbonated drink. For instance— I’ll take the fried chicken livers, green beans, and a Coke. What kinda Coke you want hon’? How ‘bout a Dr. Pepper? Where I come from sweet is the only way tea is served and potato salad has mayonnaise, mustard, and sweet pickles. Like most young people, I suppose, I hated my hometown. I was young and impatient, and the place I came from was in no big hurry. Mostly though, I couldn’t wait to escape the claustrophobic gentility tha...

2 comments 2

Read story

“Where I come from” by Fred Fletcher

Submitted to Contest #164

Where I come from is at the edge of the land. On a high hill overlooking the sea, its base was cropped into fields and farms though its crest crowned with forest. My house stood high up there, at the boundary of the woods, and looked back landwards over the valley of grass, hedgerows and towns. There weren’t many roads where I came from, but the foxes and badgers had their tracks, and the wind would howl through its passages in the forest. The seagulls also had their ways, drifting overhead on their travels, the cold and saltiness of the se...

0 comments 0

Read story

“The Boys from Archibald Hall” by Daniel E Gagné

Submitted to Contest #164

"Where I come from," Sylvester recalled the speech the new president-elect gave the night he'd won the election. "We fight for the equality of all. For everyone to have a choice to live their lives according to their desires. My job as president will be to give more freedom to all citizens of this great country!" The people cheered and applauded the arrival of their liberator, Ronald Williams. The incoming president was sympathetic to social change and simultaneously soft on business intervention. But there would be barriers to the propose...

3 comments 3

Read story

“IN MY MOTHER'S HOUSE” by Gloria Murray

Submitted to Contest #164

IN MY MOTHER’S HOUSE Where I come from there are walls that cannot be torn down, couches and chairs covered in plastic that sticks to every exposed part of you, polished black speckled tiles under your feet instead of plushy rugs, window shades that flap against the sun that cannot find its way in… At the dinner table my mother stands against the small stove, stirring the chicken soup, frying the fish I won’t eat because of the bones, the bones I fear will stick in my throat. My father is silent, his face made of chiseled stone, my ...

1 comment 1

Read story

“Least Of All Me ” by Dela H

Submitted to Contest #164

Where I come from, teachers don’t make you do silly things. For some reason, my teacher gave me a journal. She says that writing about how you feel is just as important as any other type of writing. She says that writing about emotion and thought and your own life is, in a way, a story. You’re telling your own story, which counts. I don’t think it counts. I think it is silly. I think it’s an excuse for her to shop on her phone for half an hour each morning while we scribble a page’s worth of nonsense. Today’s prompt w...

1 comment 1

Read story

“Getting Brought Up Differently” by Katelyn Pacheco

Submitted to Contest #164

“Where I come from you kids are always polite to your elders,” I mumbled to myself as I pulled out of my housing complex. It was a common phrase I have heard over and over again since I moved here. It always comes from older people set in their ways. I parked my car in a rush. I quickly walked into the corner store that was down the road from my house. I hadn’t gotten used to having to drive to a place that was so close to where I lived, but around the area I just moved to it was a necessity. I wouldn’t call it a bad neighborhood, it was ac...

1 comment 1

Read story

“The Everyday Housewife.....” by Julie Grenness

Submitted to Contest #164

Where I come from, this lady is everywhere, and any when. Such is the life of the everyday housewife. Nameless, faceless, a middle suburban mother of four children who grew up too fast. Once they were babes in arms. The everyday housewife had proudly brought them all home, one by one, from the maternity unit. Now they are teens, all of them. Not such good planning, regrets the everyday housewife, as she awakens one Saturday morning. Teen A, her senior heir to her absent husband, is a loud proud male, with his own car. It is a noisy, but reli...

1 comment 1

Read story

“Mother Dearest” by Artemis Webber

Submitted to Contest #164

Content warning: mental health, death “Where I come from we mourn the ones who have managed to stay alive past 21.” “I understand,” Eivora says, “tell me more.” “How can you understand?” The white walls around us shine so bright I have to squint. “I’ve had patients who feel the same way.” “Yeah, okay” I say, and refuse to say anymore. She keeps on whining, asking me questions. My eyes hurt so I close them. I lean back into my chair. Yesterday we were drawing. I’d like to do some more drawing. “Leila,” she says, “pl...

0 comments 0

Read story

“Where my Heart Lays” by Jessica Berkowitz

Submitted to Contest #164

Granny reminds me that where I come from, “Sundays are for visiting with Jesus, not idle boys.” Sometimes Jamie surprises me with a visit to the pretzel shop where I work. We sit in front of the last vestiges of the mall. Once it had been a thriving center, a replacement for the dwindling tobacco business. But the arc of commerce, quick to rise and fall, meant the mall was now a gathering of vacant storefronts and retired folk using it as their all-weather track for walking laps. We perch on a bench outside the parking lo...

2 comments 2

Read story

“Where am I from?” by Ralph Emery Barhydt

Submitted to Contest #164

—————————————————————————————————————————— I come from a very poor family. We moved from house to house across two states because my father kept bouncing the rent checks. Bouncing checks was a habit in an era where it was punishable by jail and I did have to bail him out once due to a bad check. In my high school years, we had no car, no phone and no money for a baseball glove. Naturally, I had no dates and was isolated in my school. We frequently had no money for lunch and no lunch from home. We were wealthy once when my mother’s mot...

1 comment 1

Read story

“The Ethos of Starkes Herz” by Zach Martz

Submitted to Contest #164

“Where I come from, people do not go where there are not human footprints.” The newcomer talked softly, but with sternness and authority, slowly taking a sip from his stein of lager as he spoke. The barkeep was listening, but was not very impressed. “A young man has so much to learn. The whole world is greater than the sum of its individual parts.” “Indeed.” Gunter cherished the richness of his drink; it was a taste he had never experienced before. “But in my village, it has always been said, that those who seek out the unknown, do not c...

0 comments 0

Read story

“Home” by Jed Cope

Submitted to Contest #164

Where I come from, people don’t treat you nice. That’s my abiding memory of where I come from. That and… Well, I wasn’t always like this, you know? I try hard, but there I am going around and around in circles. Not all of the time, but sometimes it just kicks in and there I am, doing my thing. Only the thing I am doing isn’t my thing. It’s their thing. They taught me this and a whole bunch of other things and once these things became a habit, well I don’t think there’s any way of changing that. Not really there isn’...

0 comments 0

Read story

“Cape Race Lighthouse” by Mairin Omahony

Submitted to Contest #164

Some content is sensitive in an inexplicit way, an may cause upset to people. Where I come from is a lighthouse on the eastern coast of Newfoundland. I have lived here for most of my life, just me and my parents. My father was the lighthouse keeper before I took over from him when I finished school. I could not wait for my eighteenth birthday to come when I could practice the skills learned over the years from constantly watching my father who operated the lighthouse since he was sixteen years of age. Cape Race lighthouse is situated...

1 comment 1

Read story

“Around the Corner” by Heather Williams

Submitted to Contest #164

Just Around the Corner Where I come from people wave. Even driving by, they slow and shoot their arm out the car window to acknowledge the person they’re passing. It’s a small town, of course. Who waves in a big city? It’s so small that...

1 comment 1

Read story

Load more stories

🌟 Similar prompts

Write a story in which someone returns to their hometown.

Adults – 81 stories

Write a story about coming of age in a big city.

High School – 14 stories

Write a story where a local takes a newcomer under their wing.

Adults – 24 stories

Think of someone who stood on the periphery of your childhood memories (a classmate, a teacher, a neighbor) and cast them as the main character of your story.

Middle School – 31 stories

Contest #164

Enter our weekly contest!

This week's theme: Where I Come From

$250

Prize money

235

Contest entries

91

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Sep 23, 2022 EST

Won by Lindsay Flo 🏆

Title: Mothering

View details

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

We'll send you 5 prompts each week. Respond with your short story and you could win $250!

Menu

CONNECT

BLOG

APPS

TOOLS

ABOUT

Start your story with a character saying “Where I come from, …”

Submissions are closed

✍️ 85 stories

“I Had A Good Life” by Valerie Preston

“Coca Cola, Sweet Tea, and Jesus” by Rebecca Lefkoff

“Where I come from” by Fred Fletcher

“The Boys from Archibald Hall” by Daniel E Gagné

“IN MY MOTHER'S HOUSE” by Gloria Murray

“Least Of All Me ” by Dela H

“Getting Brought Up Differently” by Katelyn Pacheco

“The Everyday Housewife.....” by Julie Grenness

“Mother Dearest” by Artemis Webber

“Where my Heart Lays” by Jessica Berkowitz

“Where am I from?” by Ralph Emery Barhydt

“The Ethos of Starkes Herz” by Zach Martz

“Home” by Jed Cope

“Cape Race Lighthouse” by Mairin Omahony

“Around the Corner” by Heather Williams

🌟 Similar prompts

Write a story in which someone returns to their hometown.

Write a story about coming of age in a big city.

Write a story where a local takes a newcomer under their wing.

Think of someone who stood on the periphery of your childhood memories (a classmate, a teacher, a neighbor) and cast them as the main character of your story.

Contest #164

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

235

Contest entries

91

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: