Hillbilly Elegy

better take schoolwork more seriously. I
owed it to her, and she reminded me of it
constantly. “Have you finished your
work for that Selby teacher?” “No,
Mamaw, not yet.” “You damn well better
start. I didn’t spend every penny I had on
that little computer so you could fuck
around all day.”
Those three years with Mamaw—
uninterrupted and alone—saved me. I
didn’t notice the causality of the change,
how living with her turned my life
around. I didn’t notice that my grades
began to improve immediately after I
moved in. And I couldn’t have known
that I was making lifelong friends.
During that time, Mamaw and I