@page { margin-bottom: 5.000000pt; margin-top: 5.000000pt; } A n n P a t c h e t t W h a t n o w ? D e s i g n e d b y C h i p K i d d Contents Begin Reading 1 Postscript 84 Photo Credits 100 About the Author Other Books by Ann Patchett Credits Cover Copyright About the Publisher W h a t n o w ? t o A l l a n G u r g a n u s a n d A l i c e S t o n e I l c h m a n : Fr i e n d s , t e a c h e r s , r o l e m o d e l s W h a t n o w ? If all fairy tales begin “Once upon a time,” then all graduation speeches begin “When I was sitting where you are now.” We may not always say it, at least not in those exact words, but it’s what graduation speakers are thinking. We look out at the sea of you and think, Isn’t there some mistake? I should still be sitting there. I was that young fifteen minutes ago, I was that beautiful and lost. For me this feeling is compounded by the fact that Sarah Lawrence was my own alma mater. I 1 look out at all these chairs lined up across Westlands lawn and I think, I slept on that lawn, I breathed that wisteria.
