A Meaning For Wife

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Mark Yakich. A Meaning For Wife

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No luck. But you do find your entry in the “senior summaries.” Goal: “To become a private investigator in Hawaii and to own a Ferrari.” Jesus. Favorite teacher: “Mrs. Steffen.” What? You remember hating her for making you write a paper on Matthew Arnold’s “Dover Beach.” What was the point, you told her, of reading this poem about the beach—if you want to experience the beach, wouldn’t it be better simply to go to the beach? Your favorite memory: “Prom with LW and cross-country championship junior year.” You glance over old classmates’ summaries; under a name you recognize as a guy who ODed in college you read his goal: “To succeed.”

You find the photos of the small clique of friends you had. At times a close group—advanced placement class takers but also dope-smokers and band members and cheerleaders. You remember an excerpt from Carmen’s valedictorian speech word for word: We should all be very proud of ourselves and our accomplishments given that it is hard to soar like eagles when we were led by a turkey. The eagle was a reference to your school’s mascot and the turkey was a reference to the principal. Carmen was probably the only student whose parents had to have a conference with the principal after their child graduated. But her parents didn’t mind. In fact none of your parents would have minded. Since your class had been in elementary school, parents had talked about how special all of you were. They even differentiated you from siblings a year or two older or younger. You heard your mother once tell another mother on the phone, “He’s going to do something spectacular in the sciences, don’t ask me what, yes, I simply know it, biology, I think.” You could picture the mother on the other end of the line nodding her head into the phone. Sadly, you did nothing in the sciences and the only biology you have is a tiny grasp of the workings of your colon because you were diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome three years ago.

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