Last year, when we were all quarantined because of the pandemic, we asked you about your detours from home. You shared little things like becoming a plant parent, learning how to hook yarns, trying out online dating, and getting used to biking around town. 

This time, we would like to hear about your life’s greatest detours – whether those are from home or not, it doesn’t matter. If it changed your life, then it’s worth talking about.

What kind of stories are we looking for? It could be about a drastic career change – say from being a journalist to becoming a doctor or leaving your hometown to move to a place that’s pretty much alien to you. It could also be about changing your beliefs about the way we’ve been taught to live our lives – say from being a meat-eater to going vegan.

These are just some examples. We all have unique stories to tell (and we can’t wait to hear them) but these should give you an idea. 

We would also be posting prompts about specific themes from time to time – just to spark ideas – but we’re open to getting essays about different topics anytime.

How to submit an essay? Write a 600 to 800-word essay, Arial, size 11, single-spaced in Microsoft Word document format. Add a title and a subhead like this and then send it to stories@rappler.com with the subject Detours: [Title of essay]. Please include a short cover letter to give an overview of what the essay is about and a short biography. You may also send over photos that we can use as a reference for the illustration that comes with the essay. Here’s an example of an illustration.

Detours is an ongoing column so there’s no deadline for submissions.

If you have any clarifications, you can also send them over to stories@rappler.com.

We can’t wait to share and inspire people with your life’s greatest detours! 

(Some notes: We try to respond to submissions as much as we can but please give us at least a week to get back to you in case we’re taking a while. Please also note that essays may be edited for brevity and if there are spelling or grammatical errors. Select published essays may also be turned into a podcast in the future.) – Rappler.com