Kathy, Nathan, and Jeri, all three of them older than me, were freed from school, and one by one they did the inevitable—they left Arkansas. Kathy left first, to go to college. She was always motivated by school and learning, and she wanted to go to Evergreen, in Olympia, Washington. Olympia was home to Kill Rock Stars and Riot Grrrl and everything we worshipped. Evergreen was a state school, not a bourgie, fancy private university, but it was a financial struggle for Kathy to be there. Evergreen was radical and taught its students about politics and encouraged them to be activists and to use art to create social change. At Evergreen you learned about the political dimensions of everything. Your food was political. Your family’s economic state was political. Automobiles and gasoline were political. Trash was political. Evergreen was a revelation. Kathy moved to Olympia by herself, during the longest rainy season they’d ever had. The year Kathy left sunny Arkansas, the Pacific Northwest skies dumped rain for a record-breaking ninety consecutive days.
