Hillbilly Elegy

entirely different emotional universe. I
thought about her constantly. One friend
described me as “heartsick” and another
told me he had never seen me like this.
Toward the end of our first year, I
learned that Usha was single, and I
immediately asked her out. After a few
weeks of flirtations and a single date, I
told her that I was in love with her. It
violated every rule of modern dating I’d
learned as a young man, but I didn’t
care.
Usha was like my Yale spirit guide.
She’d attended the university for
college, too, and knew all of the best
coffee shops and places to eat. Her
knowledge went much deeper, however: