Some stories begin with a carefully constructed plot. Others begin with a memory that refuses to leave.
The Road to Athens began with memories: a residence-hall corridor, a long drive across Illinois, a song playing through a car radio, and conversations that seemed ordinary at the time but proved important years later.
I wanted to write about the moments that shape us before we understand what they mean.
A story about becoming
At its heart, The Road to Athens is a coming-of-age story.
Ethan Brooks arrives at Southern Illinois University in 1988 believing college will offer him a fresh beginning. Like many eighteen-year-olds, he is eager for independence but unprepared for everything independence requires.
He wants freedom without consequences. He wants relationships without vulnerability. He wants to decide who he will become without confronting the person he has already been.
Then one reckless decision changes the direction of his life.
I did not want Ethan’s story to suggest that people are defined forever by their worst choices. I wanted to explore what happens afterward—when guilt remains, apologies are difficult, and growing up means accepting responsibility rather than running from it.
That is the real journey in this book.
Why friendship matters
Romantic love is an important part of The Road to Athens, but friendship is its foundation.
The people Ethan meets in college become more than classmates and neighbors. They challenge him, frustrate him, forgive him, and show him truths he cannot recognize by himself.
Some friends remain beside us for decades. Others appear for only a season. Both can change the course of a life.
I wanted the friendships in this novel to feel lived-in and imperfect—the kind built through shared meals, late-night conversations, practical jokes, arguments, road trips, and quiet acts of loyalty.
These relationships do not rescue Ethan from every consequence. They give him a reason to become someone worthy of their trust.
Why the story begins in 1988
I set the novel in 1988 because it was a very different time to leave home.
There were no smartphones, social-media profiles, or location-sharing apps. Students relied on hallway telephones, handwritten notes, paper maps, letters, and conversations held face-to-face.
If someone left, they could become unreachable.
That distance created freedom, but it also created uncertainty. A misunderstanding could not always be resolved with an immediate message. An apology might require a long drive or the courage to knock on someone’s door.
Music arrived through radios, records, and cassette tapes. Photographs remained hidden inside a camera until the film was developed. Friendships formed slowly because people learned about one another through time spent together.
The late 1980s are more than decoration in this story. They influence every relationship, decision, and silence.
The road itself
Roads have always fascinated me.
A road can take someone away from home, toward a new beginning, or back to a place they thought they had left behind. The same highway can represent freedom during one journey and regret during another.
For Ethan, the roads connecting Naperville, Carbondale, and eventually Athens mark different stages of his life. Every trip carries him toward another choice—and another opportunity to decide who he wants to be.
The title The Road to Athens is not simply about reaching a destination. It is about everything that must be faced along the way.
A story about second chances
More than anything, I wrote this book because I believe in second chances.
Not easy second chances. Not the kind that erase what happened or allow someone to avoid responsibility.
I believe in the harder kind—the second chance that begins with honesty.
Ethan cannot change the past. He can only decide what he will do with it. He must learn that redemption is not something a person demands from others. It is something pursued through accountability, humility, and change.
That struggle felt worth writing about because nearly everyone carries a decision they wish they could revisit. We all have moments when we failed someone, misunderstood ourselves, or chose the easier road instead of the right one.
The question is what happens next.
Welcome to the journal
I created The Road to Athens Journal to explore the world surrounding the novel: the places, music, memories, relationships, and ideas that shaped its journey.
In the entries ahead, I will share stories about the book’s late-1980s setting, its characters, the roads they travel, and the experiences that inspired its emotional landscape.
Some entries will look behind the scenes. Others will revisit the world of college before smartphones and social media. All of them will return to the questions at the center of the novel:
How do our choices shape us? What do we owe the people we have hurt? And how far must we travel before we finally understand the way home?
Thank you for joining me on the road.
Some roads lead you away. Some bring you home.
What memory from your younger years still feels like the beginning of a story?