Hillbilly Elegy

picked me up from school, I’d ask her
not to get out of the car lest my friends
see her—wearing her uniform of baggy
jeans and a men’s T-shirt—with a giant
menthol cigarette hanging from her lip.
When people asked, I lied and told them
that I lived with my mom, that she and I
took care of my ailing grandmother.
Even today, I still regret that far too
many high school friends and
acquaintances never knew Mamaw was
the best thing that ever happened to me.
My junior year, I tested into the
honors Advanced Math class—a hybrid
of trigonometry, advanced algebra, and
precalculus. The class’s instructor, Ron
Selby, enjoyed legendary status among