Lessons learned from "You'd Be Home Now" by Lori

Lessons learned from "You'd Be Home Now" by Lori - October 2025 Scholarship Essay

I recently read the fiction book “You’d Be Home Now” by Kathleen Glasgow. In this book, the main character, Emory, goes through a lot of different challenges, which take a big toll on her mental health. Her brother is a drug addict, got into a car accident with her brother and her friend Candy MontClaire, and photos of her body were leaked to her whole school. While all of these things happen to her, she doesn't talk to anyone about her feelings. At some points of the story, it seems as if she doesn't want to speak up about how she is feeling because she doesn't want to burden her parents with any more problems. She has already been hiding things about her brother from her parents, which she knows is wrong, but she has been doing things her whole life, so she feels that it is what she has to do. I have learned a couple of things from this book and the challenges the main character goes through. Keeping things inside to hide from the truth is going to hurt more, and you don't have to be perfect.

For most of the book, Emory keeps secrets from her parents to appear as “the good one” while her brother is “the troubled one,” when in reality they're both struggling. I struggle with this in my life as well. Although I don't have any siblings, my mother has very high expectations for me. I feel that I have to be the perfect daughter because all of the attention is on me. I often go through challenges, but don't tell my mother about them because I feel that she might look at me differently, or she might be disappointed in me. But after reading this book, it has made me realize that it is ok to have things going on. Everyone has things going on behind closed doors, and it is ok. It has made me realize that even the people you think are doing the best in life probably have problems of their own. Because of this realization, I feel I can come to my mom about more things without her seeing me differently. My mental health is also better now because I don't feel I have to force myself into this perfect image of what I'm supposed to be.

For almost all of the book, Emory keeps secrets from everyone in her life about how she truly feels. Because of this, Emory’s mental health depletes. She starts having different feelings about herself, and with one to go to but herself, it just gets worse and worse. It made me realize that you should express your feelings because keeping them to yourself will not help anything. A lot of people don't tell people about how they feel because they feel that they might look at them differently or that they wouldn't understand them. This is not good because people will go their whole life holding these secrets and never get the clarity they need. This can also be dangerous because when people have these ideas inside their heads and don't try to get the help they need, the ideas can worsen. Think of it as something you're cooking with the idea of the food. When you are cooking, usually the longer you cook the food, the more flavor there will be in the dish. So when you have these ideas in your head, the longer they sit in your mind, the more potent the ideas get.

Both of these lessons go hand in hand, but are also very different at the same time. Knowing that you don't have to be perfect all the time also helps you know that you don't have to keep things in all of the time. Because you can talk about your problems, you are showing that you are not perfect and you are a normal person, just like everyone else. Also, with you knowing that you don't have to be perfect, you know that it is ok to make mistakes, which is very different than keeping things in and not talking about your feelings. And knowing you can talk about your feelings allows you to be able to speak up about your issues, which is different than having to be perfect all the time, but also very similar.