Local Students Write Love Letters to Their South Sound Hometowns: Tacoma

Readers and South Sounders: Tacoma School of the Arts Humanities students are participating in writing "love letters" to their hometowns. The writing exercise combines creativity, editing, and getting the letters published. Join me in celebrating these students and their wonderful letters in the upcoming letter series featured on the In Your Neighborhood blog. Read on and enjoy!

Dear Tacoma,

You are not my Wonderland. You’re not the scene of my tea party. You are my reality. You wake me up each morning with the chimes of promise, a promise of intrigue and routine. You fill my eyes with quiet rain that drips down from your hazy gray skies onto the crimson leaves that shadow my street and the unruly grass that softens beneath our combined touch. You provide my feet cobblestone streets, winding sidewalks with plants hovering over my head, university fields, and pebbled beaches. It is here, on these terrains that I build my expectations for the world; that I meditate, that I discover, and that I want to return to again and again. You inspire me to find the connectivity of life, to read a book in the middle of the night, to twirl through the trees in the park, to run away my fears, and to listen to someone I love as we look out upon your Bay. And you put me to bed each evening with the echo of those chimes. A soft reminder that I can sculpt the coming day. But you don’t just offer me promise. You constantly – sometimes quite harshly – push me to my limit. You remind me that you can always do and give more to yourself. You remind me that appeasing all those around you will take the color out of the roses. You remind me of the power of community. That you can walk into your café’s and see a familiar face and not be embarrassed to say hello. You remind me to be passionate. You give me permission to devote my whole self to something I care for and not hold back. You tear apart my inhibitions and the selfish pressures of others. You inspire me to fall and take my time getting up. Other cities would have laughed at me, instead you cried with me. You hugged me and let me continue down the avenue towards home.

Sincerely,

Gracia Smith, Student

Tacoma School of the Arts