On Leaving and Becoming
This novel follows a globally mobile protagonist born in Florida in the early 1980s whose life unfolds across multiple countries before settling in Northern Virginia. The inciting moment occurs when his father puts him out, not in hostility, but as a belief in enforced independence. Belgium becomes the first sustained geography of adulthood.
From culinary school in Amsterdam to an open-access community college in Northern Virginia to Data Center Operations in Ashburn, the path is nonlinear and shaped at every turn by the systems around him, admissions portals, visa processes, digital platforms, and eventually the AI and cloud infrastructure he works inside. What begins as background becomes something harder to ignore.
Genre: Literary Fiction
Status: In Progress
Dr. Treca Bourne 