I have not always known where I am from. Born in north Georgia, I spent my childhood in Scottsdale and adolescence in Costa Rica. After a year in Europe with no fixed address, I crash-landed in Canada in 2004. I have moved 35 times in my life, and 2021 is the year in which I begin to average less than one move per year. In an effort to protect me and my sisters from the corrosive forces of the institutions of education, government, and religion, I was unschooled and had disrupted contact with much of regular society. These decisions resulted in unique and often difficult childhood experiences. The Arrival depicts the moment I arrived at college with everything I thought I needed to be a successful adult: ballet shoes, Gaelic Bible, 19th century poetry, and a violin, among other items. — Alexandra Ross