I’d been doing a lot of thinking about my future. I still thought I could be a doctor if I could get the marks for a good school. Or a lawyer, although I didn’t know what that would be like. I’d seen a lot of TV shows about doctors, but I hated shows about lawyers, they were always assholes. But either way, I really had to do something about my marks. I was barely passing.

And I would need either a scholarship or a band to recognize me. There was no way I could pay for like e...