Page 106 - Too Much and Never Enough - Mary L. Trump

circumstances he was essentially responsible for having created. The situation was proof that his power had limits.
After I got home from summer camp that August, I announced that I wanted to go to boarding school. I explained to Dad that after ten years at Kew-Forest, the same extremely small school my aunts and uncles had gone to, I was feeling hemmed in and bored. I wanted more of a challenge, a place with a campus, better sports facilities, more opportunities. Dad warned me about the dangers of becoming a small fish in a big pond, but I think he understood that although my stated reasons were all true, I also needed to get away.
The problem was that I had only three weeks to figure out where I wanted to go, fill out applications, and get accepted. Over the last two weeks of August 1981, my mother and I visited almost every boarding school in Connecticut and Massachusetts.
While I waited for the results, we needed to get permission from my grandfather, or at least that’s what Dad said.
The two of us stood in front of my grandfather’s usual spot on the love seat, and Dad explained what I wanted to do. “What does she want to do that for?” my grandfather asked, as if I weren’t standing right in front of him. “Kew-Forest is fine.” He’d been on the board there for almost thirty years.
“It’s just time for a change. Come on, Pop. It’ll be good for her.”
My grandfather complained about the extra expense, even though the money would come from my father’s trust fund and wouldn’t affect him at all, and he reiterated his belief in the superiority of Kew-Forest. But Dad didn’t back down.
I don’t think my grandfather really cared where I went to school, but I was grateful that Dad had stood by my side once again.
The day before heading to boarding school, I left the apartment at the Highlander and rode my bike to my grandparents’ house. I coasted down the driveway, propped my bike against the high brick wall next to the garage, then climbed the stairs to the path leading to the back door.