My family agrees on little in the movie-tv shows-popular culture front, but in recent years there’s been one thing we’ve all rallied around: LOST. There’s plenty to explore here, but I won’t dive into that messy territory.

I’ve watched the series LOST at least six times now: I watched it in high school. I watched it in college. I watched it with two non-consecutive boyfriends and after one of the breakups. And I watched it when I moved to Baltimore and didn’t have a job. In honor of my thesis kinda-sorta-coming-together, I’ve decided to dive into the series for  (probably-not-) the final time.

All the flashbacks and characterization help me piece together my own family history and childhood home. Or maybe it’s just nice to have distracting noise in the background of my otherwise very empty and quiet apartment. I need some kind of chaos to write.

Here’s a preview of my own LOST-inspired flashbacks:

The house from the photos did look familiar to me, but my child brain couldn’t make the connection. The outside didn’t fit with the peach version I knew, and the photos of the interior had walls and doors where ours was open and airy. It would be years before I realized I was looking at the baby pictures of our house.