Hillbilly Elegy

decisions were coming about my future.
All of my friends planned to go to
college; that I had such motivated friends
was due to Mamaw’s influence. By the
time I was in seventh grade, many of my
neighborhood friends were already
smoking weed. Mamaw found out and
forbade me to see any of them. I
recognize that most kids ignore
instructions like these, but most kids
don’t receive them from the likes of
Bonnie Vance. She promised that if she
saw me in the presence of any person on
the banned list, she would run him over
with her car. “No one would ever find
out,” she whispered menacingly.
With my friends headed for college, I