Hello! My name is Kaitlin Isabelle
and I am a graduate student at Nazareth College. I am currently studying
Literacy education to become a literacy specialist and have been spending some
extra time lately in search of some good books. Speaking of good books, What We Left Behind by Robin Talley is a
must read!
Whether you are a TBF reader already in high school,
or are just starting, college probably feels far away. However, everyone know
how exciting graduation is! For many, college is the first of many big changes.
Take a moment to imagine what getting ready for college will feel like. What are
you excited about when you started? What will you be afraid of? Who will you hope
to meet? Will you have to leave anyone behind? What do you dream college will be
like?
Many of those thoughts you are having are the same that
main characters Toni and Gretchen’s had when finishing high school and starting
college. This emotional story starts off with the introduction of a romance
between these two girls. They met, they fall in love and they were inseparable
since that first day. They love each other so much that whenever either of them
takes a moment to think about herself, it is not simply Gretchen thinking about
Gretchen or Toni thinking about Toni.
Instead, it’s always- “Gretchen
and Toni”. A captivating line that shows the depth of their love is when we
hear Toni as she thinks to herself “I never imagined that being one half of a
whole could make you feel more whole yourself”.
But when their plan to go to college in the same
town changes, they decide that even though the distance will make it tough,
their love is tougher. This whole starting college thing sounds so easy for
them right? However, this easy task quickly becomes difficult for Gretchen and
Toni as they start on independent journeys towards self-identification.
Starting college leaves these girls questioning who they really are. For
example, Gretchen moves to New York to go to NYU. While she is there she starts
to confuse who she really is to who she was when she was with Toni. But Toni’s
journey is quite different than Gretchen’s. In this new world of Harvard in
Boston, Toni joins the LGBTQ community
on Harvard’s campus. With a new group of friends she starts to question her
gender. She knows she does not identify as a female, so she is left struggling
with whether she identifies as a male or neither gender. We really start to
understand this internal struggle as we hear Toni’s thoughts while she is with
her sister, Audrey.
“I
want to be the sister Audrey wants me to be. No, not the sister. The sibling. I
need to stop defining myself according to other people’s expectations. I need
to figure out who I am. Not just whether I’m a guy, either. What do I actually
want for myself? Outside what my friends see, or my girlfriend sees, or my
family sees? Maybe things will never be the way they were before between me and
Audrey. Because I’m not the same.”
As you look down the road to your
life in a few years, do you think you will know who you truly are. Determining
our identity is part of life when hitting high school and then going into
college. Whether trying to find friends that you click with or even what gender
to identify as, this journey of identity is one all must take. How will these
two unique journeys for two unique girls affect their relationship? Will
Gretchen start to understand who she is as just Gretchen? What will Toni decide
when it comes to her gender identity? You’ll have to read this great book to
find out!
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