Ophelia After All

YA fiction 

     Mostly, I want to ask her if it was worth it.  If that small moment between her and a girl who she shared beds and rings and nightmares with was worth losing the version of herself that her family had in mind from the time she was young, to let who she really was breathe for a minute or two."

     Ophelia, protagonist of Racquel Marie's Ophelia After All, considers herself pretty predictable, or at least to her parents and small circle of friends.  She spends a lot of time cultivating her special rose garden.  All her clothes have flowers on them. She's a big fan of Cuban food.  And she goes from crush to crush.  She must be boy crazy...

     ...except maybe not.  One of the people she'd like to kiss is a girl.  So what would that make her?  How would her friends react?  And would her parents be able to accept her if she didn't live up to their vision of their little girl?

     To come out or not to come out--that is one question.  The other: who exactly would she be coming out as?

     All that would be a challenge to deal with even under the best of circumstances.  Ophelia and her chums are finishing up their senior year with prom on the horizon, a prom that is inciting a lot of drama in her circle.  Can their friendship be salvaged before they all go off in different directions?

     Ophelia After All is a wonderful affirmation that one can have a life well worth living without yet knowing exactly what sexual orientation flag one falls under.  Some of us don't have it all figured out in high school.  The kids and adults who don't will cheer for Ophelia in her quest for authenticity and acceptance.

On a purrrsonal note, it took me quite awhile to figure this out.  I've crushed on a lot of people but the prospect of sex didn't seem to have anything to do with it.  I crushed on Lisa Morin because I couldn't see us not becoming close friends.  When I was on school committee I had a wicked crush on school superintendent Betsy Webb.  She was a super star to me.  I remember the first time she spoke to me.  I was all OMG she knows my name.  She was gracious enough to mentor me and we had all these conversations on really profound matters.  This summer I crushed on Becky Colannino because I realized how much I can learn from her.  I fell in love with my husband because he was the one I wanted to raise a family with.  What I've come to realize and accept is that there are a lot of things much more important to me than other people's gender identities. (Jules)

I have no clue what gender identities are.  (Tobago)

A great big shout out goes out to people who are willing to live with uncertainty and ambiguity.

Tobago and Jules Hathaway 

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