From a young age, writing became a big part of who she is, as it was the only way for her to express her feelings without really talk. Lahiri speaks when she says, “My reading was my mirror and my material; I saw no other part of myself” (4). She describes how writing really made her feel like a different person, didn't have to worry about two cultures, had to change, followed a certain tradition to write, and was able to write to express her thoughts without problem . Her tools, her desk, everything she did here to write became a part of who she was because she had never made any other connections to anything else. She now shows what that meant: “When I became a writer, my office became my home; there was no need for another” (Lahiri 6). Although Lahiri struggled to identify her identity, she did not know what her house actually was. She struggled to find a place she could be happy to call "home", and was able to find it when she began to explore and expand her writing. When Lahiri said “I belonged to my work” (6), she was describing the passion she found in the work she did. Although her parents didn't think she could make a living from her writing, which she did by publishing her book in 1999.