37 Things I Love

YA fiction 

     "'I know, right?' I say "Like I'd ever let her do that to you.  Anyway she won't do it unless I say it's okay.  She promised.  So we're fine.  You don't have to worry about anything."

     Ellis, narrator of Kekla Magoon's 37 Things I Love, is visiting her beloved father at the Assisted Living Facility.  The owner of a construction company, he had fallen off a beam suspended high in the air.  Now he's in a coma, kept alive by machines.

     Ellis's mother has to decide how long to hold out hope and when, in the absence of change, to let the facility pull the plug.  Initially she had promised Ellis that she wouldn't do so unless she was ready.  But lately, two years later, she seems reconciled to losing her husband and ready to let go.

     Ellis is at a very different place.  She still believes her dad can recover and doesn't want to let go before it can happen.

     Her mother isn't someone she can talk to about how she feels.  The counselors she gets sent to don't help.  Her best friend, Abby is obsessed with trying to get dates with athletes.  At one point before the girls sneak out to a party while Abby chats about what she's doing to make her breasts look more developed Ellis finds herself thinking:

     "I wish she would just look at me, look at my face and stop talking long enough to see me.  To see that things are not right.  That none of this is real and I am in some other place."

     In the hands of a less talented writer the narrative would be maudlin or happy ending superficial.  Magoon manages to spin an honest and perceptive coming of age story of a teen coming to terms with a situation that would prove challenging for most adults.

On a purrrsonal note, the Commuter Lounge now has a mission statement.  I wrote it and ran it by a lot of people.  My supervisor approved it.  A mission statement is the cornerstone upon which institutional values are combined into a cohesive whole upon which to base decisions.  It has to be both comprehensive and terse.  The Commuter Lounge's is "providing a supportive, welcoming, and affirming home away from home for commuter, future commuter, and nontraditional students."  Most internship sites already have mission statements.  So the chance to create one is sweet.  (Jules)

My mission statement: providing unconditional love to my family and friends. (Tobago)

Just two more days until the drag show!!!

A great big shout out goes out to our  commuters, future commuters, and nontraditional students.

Tobago and Jules Hathaway 

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