It doesn’t seem that long ago that we took a similar photo of Nell as she headed off for her first Winter formal. But I guess she was a junior then, so it is only four years ago. Sally went to IHOP with a group of friends afterwards. Abby, who was working, dropped her off there and picked her up around 1:30 am. Sally laments that she doesn’t have a tight-knit group of friends. She has individual friends that she spends time with—Emily, Carissa, Jessica—but no social group like Nell had. Abby had many acquaintances, but floated between groups.

Sally is discovering the world of intellectual enthusiasms in a way that I remember from my own childhood: languages, political argument, science (Darwin), reading, painting, introspective walks. There’s one conservative boy in her Spanish class who drives her crazy, wakens in her the urge to debate. I so well remember the tension between rebuttal and dismissal buzzing around in my head for hours.

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