Summary

On the first day of winter break, Becky felt happy. Last night she had her first kiss, and the sweetness of the experience stayed with her. When she got up, she saw everything through the eyes of "a woman a man had kissed" (45). Until Tanner Evans, she had had no interest in boys.

Instead of helping Judson with the sugar cookies, Becky sat near the Christmas tree and worked on her college essay. She was responding to the prompt "Tell us about a person you admire" (46, Franzen's italics). She began writing about her older brother, Clem, with whom she had a close relationship. Everything she wrote felt wrong. She did not doubt her connection with him, but her essay sounded juvenile. She scrapped the draft and started writing instead about her late aunt Shirley. Amidst her work, her mother told her she...