At my twin sister’s graduation, my father lifted his camera the second her section was called—but then the dean said, “Please welcome Francis Townsend, our Whitfield Scholar and valedictorian,” by thugiangkok •
The walk to the stage felt longer than the four years it had taken me to get there. One step. Then another. The stadium was clapping, but all I could really hear was the soft scrape of my mother’s bouquet sliding against her lap because her hands had gone loose. My father still had the…
