MY PARENTS WALKED AWAY FROM ME AT THE HOSPITAL WHEN I WAS 13 — MY MOTHER WENT PALE WHEN THE DEAN CALLED MY NAME

a conversation. Call us.”

I never replied.

During the following two weeks, they called forty-seven times. Emails, text messages, social media messages—every method they could think of. Each communication contained some combination of guilt, entitlement, and thinly disguised requests for financial help. They had heard that Johns Hopkins graduates often continue reading …