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Reunited and it feels so good
Friday July 25 2008
By Tracey Duguay, RANDOM PASSAGES
 
By the time most people read this, I’ll be doing something I haven’t done in a really long time. Actually I’ll be doing a few things I haven’t done in awhile.
The first is drinking a chocolate martini (or two). I have some old (as in long-term, not in the tooth) friends coming to visit for the weekend. I haven’t spent any quality time with my friends since returning from my self-imposed exile on the West Coast and, needless to say, I’m looking forward to their visit.
But along with the two of them comes some very precious cargo. Stored in boxes in my parent’s garage for the past six months are the books I’ve gathered along my life. In many ways, they’re my hard- and soft-covered security blanket.
I’ve been an avid reader for as long as I can remember. My idea of a good escape is getting lost for hours in the lives of whatever character is unfolding on the pages.
As a young girl, I devoured Nancy Drew and Hardy Boy books as fast as my mother could buy them. I also enjoyed reading the Trixie Belden and Bobbsey Twins series.
I still have most of these books, stashed away in those boxes arriving today. They’re well worn now. Pages dog-eared, covers missing and on the ones that remain, written in my childish scrawl,  “Property of Tracey Duguay.”
Other boxes contain the fiction paperbacks I’ve bought when looking for pure, unfettered escape. I’ve been drawn to psychological mysteries for a while now, enjoying the work of authors Jonathan Kellerman and Patricia Cornwell. Mixed in there are the authors that tap into my dark side: Stephen King, John Saul, Philip Margolis and other horror genre writers.
Then there’s my “academic” collection, compiled when I attended university and built on over the years. These ones have their own special meaning. I went back to school for my English Lit. degree in my late 20s. I was recently separated and a single parent of two very young children. It was tough, but every night of studying until 3 a.m after the kids went to bed was worth it.
Those books took a very enlightening and empowering journey with me. Those years set the foundation for the person I evolved into and the career path I ended up on.
For every painstaking moment of trying to wrap my tongue around the linguistics of Shakespeare, the meaning of Plato’s cave, the logic of Aristotle or the “I think, therefore I am” philosophy of Descartes, a piece of me was formed.
Aside from literature, I also took many women’s studies classes, the theories of which nourished the political activism that led me to journalism.    
A part of me was sealed inside those boxes, lying dormant in the garage for all these months. It’s with great anticipation I welcome the arrival of all my friends this weekend. I hope yours is just as enjoyable.

Tracey Duguay is the managing editor of The Orangeville Banner. She can be reached at tduguay@orangevillebanner.com