Educated

direction. People crane to see what the commotion is. Immediately I begin to laugh—a wild, hysterical cackle that despite all my ...

arms pressed above my head. Then I’m back in the parking lot. I look down at my white stomach, then up at my brother. His expres ...

a strength: the conviction to live in your own mind, and not in someone else’s. I have often wondered if the most powerful words ...

23 I’m from Idaho On Sunday, a week later, a man at church asked me to dinner. I said no. It happened a second time a few days l ...

Once, when I was fifteen, after I’d started wearing mascara and lip gloss, Shawn had told Dad that he’d heard rumors about me in ...

I passed through his door. I talked and he listened, drawing the shame from me like a healer draws infection from a wound. When ...

I tried to ignore the ache and focus on my classes, but it felt as though I were being asked to sit through a lecture while a wo ...

I had a job at the campus creamery, flipping burgers and scooping ice cream. I got by between paydays by neglecting overdue bill ...

I hung up and was walking down the hall, wishing I’d asked Tony if he could lend me the money to get to Vegas, when a gruff voic ...

tires. I eased the car door open noiselessly, then padded across the grass and slipped through the back door, moving silently th ...

I had the root canal. I bought my textbooks, paid rent, and had money left over. The bishop said I should treat myself to someth ...

24 A Knight, Errant I had a thousand dollars in my bank account. It felt strange just to think that, let alone say it. A thousan ...

The bell rang. The auditorium emptied. I went to the computer lab. I hesitated for a moment over the keyboard—struck by a premon ...

related to court appearances, were dropped. Randy Weaver had been interviewed by major news organizations and had even co-writte ...

I became obsessed with bipolar disorder. We were required to write a research paper for Psychology and I chose it as my subject, ...

wagon, watching Mother’s face bulge and distend, unable even to touch her because electrified cables were sending a deadly pulse ...

I began to feel poorly toward the end of May. A week passed in which I could hardly drag myself to my job, an internship at a la ...

“Very, very bad luck,” he said. “I can give you penicillin for the strep, but there’s not much I can do for the mono. You’ll hav ...

“It’s Dad,” she said. “If you hurry—leave right now—you can say goodbye.” ...

25 The Work of Sulphur There’s a story I was told when I was young, told so many times and from such an early age, I can’t remem ...