Hillbilly Elegy

I didn’t know the dean of my college
at Ohio State. It’s a big place. I’m sure
she is a lovely person, and the form was
clearly little more than a formality. But I
just couldn’t ask. I had never met this
person, never taken a class with her,
and, most of all, didn’t trust her.
Whatever virtues she possessed as a
person, she was, in the abstract, an
outsider. The professors I’d selected to
write my letters had gained my trust. I
listened to them nearly every day, took
their tests, and wrote papers for them.
As much as I loved Ohio State and its
people for an incredible education and
experience, I could not put my fate in the
hands of someone I didn’t know. I tried