Itore the envelope open, anticipating a friendly letter that would include details on what color our bedspreads would be and who would get the top of the triple bunk bed. Instead, my potential college roommate requested that I move out of the dorm room. She and the other roommate wanted a girl from their hometown to move in.

My heart sank. I was getting kicked out because I wasn’t from their hometown. The fact that I was a stranger was enough to exclude me from their lives. I sometimes wonder if any of their mothers knew about that cruel letter; probably not.

When I showed it to my mom, she was sympathetic, but she and my dad didn’t understand why I wanted to go to college. We lived in a small town in Ohio, where I spent my days exploring the neighborhood on my bike and fishing in the cr

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