Hillbilly Elegy

since I’d slept more than four hours in a
day. The tally was thirty-nine. But I
continued, and in August 2009, after one
year and eleven months at Ohio State, I
graduated with a double major, summa
cum laude. I tried to skip my graduation
ceremony, but my family wouldn’t let
me. So I sat in an uncomfortable chair
for three hours before I walked across
the podium and received my college
diploma. When Gordon Gee, then
president of the Ohio State University,
paused for an unusually long photograph
with the girl who stood in front of me in
line, I extended my hand to his assistant,
nonverbally asking for the diploma. She
handed it to me, and I stepped behind Dr.