The Daughter They Abandoned Is The Doctor They Can’t Reach Chapter 15
A few days later, a reporter from *The Chronicle*, Duke’s student newspaper, stopped me outside a classroom.
“We’re doing a feature on merit scholarship recipients. Would you be willing to do an interview?”
“Sure.”
The interview took place in the student newspaper office. The reporter switched on her recorder while a photographer adjusted a camera nearby.
“A lot of people call you a genius. What do you think of that?”
“I’m not,” I said. “I’m just good at managing my time, and I know where to put my attention.”
She jotted that down, then asked, “Your file says you worked part-time at a bookstore all through high school. How did you balance work and school?”
I paused.
“Because I needed to pay for my college application fees. And a few other things.”
The reporter looked up, as if she wanted to ask about those other things, but I didn’t elaborate.
“Who supported you the most during that time?”
“My high school counselor, Ms. Alvarez, and my bookstore manager. They gave me information, recommendation letters, and a basic level of respect.”
The day the article came out, I noticed a few more people looking my way around campus.
Eli sat down across from me with a newspaper and pushed the page with my photo toward me.
“You look seriously cool in this.”
I glanced at the headline, smiled faintly, and didn’t pick it up.
It wasn’t cool. I had just learned very early that I had to walk my own road.
A few alumni reposted the digital version on social media. By evening, the article had made its way back to Pittsburgh. In the comments, people kept circling one line:
*Why did she have to pay her own application fees?*
I closed the page and kept revising my course paper.
The next morning, my phone started vibrating.
My mother’s name was on the screen.