A woman’s buried past resurfaces in an unexpected way.

Some summer contests are about eating pie, or pitching baseballs, or diving all the way to the bottom of the lake. Ours is about writing—specifically, writing a true-life story with the phrase “what you don’t see” in mind. Each of our multiple winning scribes has a deft way with words, and a gift for insight or humor. As for what they say blindsided them—oh, you’d be surprised!

Aliens, psychic phenomena, exorcism—it’s all part of the bumper crop of wackiness on the Sims family farm.

Twice a year, we devote an issue to personal essays by local writers, all written specifically for us. The topic at hand—“Where I’m From” (after a well-known 1993 poem by George Ella Lyon)—has inspired writers and poets around the country, yet it also seems tailor-made for our diverse East Bay.

Twice a year, The Monthly offers readers a chance to sample an eclectic mix of personal writing by local scribes. In this, our summer 2010 essay issue, we bring you five of our favorite submissions on a subject that most human beings can relate to: making a hard choice. To have your own first-person piece considered for a future roundup, keep your eye on this page, where we’ll announce our upcoming topic this fall.