Rachel Martin

Yes.

We effectively lived there when we weren't in school.

Wow.

So from a few weeks after school ended in the summer until a week before school commenced again in the fall, and then also for our entire winter breaks, we just decamped

to this place called San San outside of Port Antonio, Jamaica.

So it was in something of a backwater area.

But still, I imagine a far cry from Tulsa, Oklahoma.

That is a different culture.

And I was very young when we started going there.

And one of the aspects that...

My siblings and my parents loved about Jamaica was at that time, certainly, they could just do what they did in Oklahoma and open the door and let us roam and do whatever it was that we wanted.

So I would venture out on my own every day and fish.

And I made friends in the local community, Jamaican kids my age.

And I couldn't get enough of it.

And so I was gone from about 9 o'clock in the morning till 6 o'clock at night.

Wow.

Just out on a boat on the water with my Jamaican kid friends fishing.

But then also, I did it a lot on my own.

When friends didn't want to hang out or weren't able to hang out, I would spend the entire day – I could spend the entire day just by myself.

And I think that prepared me most of all as a writer because it's a solitary pursuit.