Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand in the Sun and Be Your Own Person

Early in the book, Rhimes recounts a childhood memory in which she would retreat to the family pantry to play. In the pantry, Rhimes could be alone with her imagination—there, she invented worlds and stories, using the pantry items as imaginary people and props. Rhimes credits this time spent in the pantry as the foundation of her passion for writing. As she reflects upon this place as an adult, she grows to understand that part of what made the time spent in the pantry so meaningful and comforting was that it allowed her to practice her passion in secret, without fear of judgement or condemnation from the outside world. As an introvert, Rhimes valued this alone time and was also invigorated by it—creating these worlds inspired and fueled her in a way that interacting with the outside world did not. The pantry, then, represents a place where the adolescent Rhimes flourishes as she develops her passion and nurtures the part of herself that is central to her identity.

As an adult, Rhimes describes moments or experiences in her life that mimic or echo this feeling of contentment as “being back in the pantry.” Writing and working on scripts for her television shows in a solitary

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