Hillbilly Elegy

everything that had made me fear the
independent college life when I was
eighteen felt like a piece of cake now. I
had puzzled through those financial aid
forms with Mamaw a few years earlier,
arguing about whether to list her or Mom
as my “parent/guardian.” We had
worried that unless I somehow obtained
and submitted the financial information
of Bob Hamel (my legal father), I’d be
guilty of fraud. The whole experience
had made both of us painfully aware of
how unfamiliar we were with the
outside world. I had nearly failed out of
high school, earning Ds and Fs in
English I. Now I paid my own bills and
earned As in every class I took at my