By Tracy Smith on What Happens When You Stop Waiting to Belong
WASHINGTON D.C., DC, UNITED STATES, January 27, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Author Tracy Smith will release her new memoir, The Purpose of Getting Lost: A Story of Finding Myself, on January 27, 2026. The book is a reflective nonfiction work exploring identity, belonging, and personal transformation through lived experience, travel, and midlife transition.
Rather than presenting a traditional travel narrative or a neatly resolved transformation story, The Purpose of Getting Lost examines what happens when certainty dissolves and familiar roles no longer fit. Smith’s memoir traces her journey through more than 30 countries across five continents alongside pivotal life changes, including the end of a long marriage and the shifting demands of motherhood.
Smith grew up in Shaffer Village public housing in Buffalo, New York, where she became acutely aware of difference and belonging at a young age. That early awareness shaped how she moved through adulthood—adapting, performing, and seeking acceptance in relationships, communities, and roles that often left her feeling unseen.
In her memoir, Smith reflects on how those patterns followed her into adulthood and how, over time, they led to a quiet reckoning. Approaching 50, she recognized that she had spent years prioritizing others’ needs while neglecting her own sense of identity. Rather than rushing to restore what was familiar, she chose to sit in that disorientation.
Solo travel became a space for observation rather than escape. Airports, homestays, temples, and unremarkable moments offered distance from expectation and an opportunity to examine long-standing habits of self-erasure. While the geography changed, the central question remained consistent: where—and how—does belonging take shape?
According to Smith, the book does not offer definitive answers. Instead, it documents a process. “Knowing was not an endpoint,” she writes. “It was a door.”
Structured as a series of interconnected essays, The Purpose of Getting Lost mirrors the way insight unfolds over time—nonlinear, repetitive, and often unresolved. The memoir addresses themes of resilience, self-trust, and agency without positioning transformation as a single event or outcome.
The book is intended for readers navigating midlife transitions, identity shifts, or periods of uncertainty. Smith emphasizes that while not everyone can travel extensively, the book’s focus is not geography, but the internal work of recognizing patterns, making quieter choices, and redefining belonging on one’s own terms.
Book Information:
Title: The Purpose of Getting Lost: A Story of Finding Myself
Author: Tracy Smith
Release Date: January 20, 2026
Format: Paperback | Ebook
ISBN: 979-8993320717 | 979-8993320700
Price: $16.79 | $3.99
More information: www.tracysmithauthor.com
About The Author:
Tracy Smith is the author of The Purpose of Getting Lost: A Story of Finding Myself. After traveling through more than 30 countries across five continents, she discovered her journey was less about travel and more about belonging, resilience, and learning to feel at home within herself. At age 50, Tracy chose courage over convention, using travel as a way to rediscover her voice and identity. Through honest, reflective storytelling, she invites others to see getting lost as an essential part of becoming.
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