Embrace the Unexpected

      In the book Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff the main character, LaVaughn is trying to find a way to make money. LaVaughn and her friends wanted to find a job so they went to their school's bulletin board and saw an ad for a babysitting job. LaVaughn decided to try and get the job since all of the tabs on the flyer with the employer's phone number on it were still there, so she had no one to compete with to get the job. LaVaughn called and found out that the employer's name was Jolly and she decided to have LaVaughn come over and meet Jolly's kids. Even though LaVaughn found out that Jolly lives in a poor part of town where "the sidewalk is sticky and the garbage cans don't have lids... The building was broken-down looking...  Jolly's apartment is disorderly and it smells" she still took the job.
        Over time Jolly and LaVaughn started becoming friends, even though Jolly is seventeen, a teenage mother, and LaVaughn is fourteen and college-bound. LaVaughn is the only one in Jolly's life besides her two kids. Jolly has no mom, no dad, and no husband, not even a boyfriend to help take care of her kids. LaVaughn understands the kids she babysits and loves them more then any babysitter could. Is that why she kept babysitting them even after Jolly couldn't afford to pay her? LaVaughn also develops a special connection with Jolly not just the kids. Sometimes Jolly would come home a few times with a bruised and bloody face from whatever she was doing out. LaVaughn would take a motherly figure by calming her down, cleaning her off, and showing that she cared and wanted to know what happened and why Jolly kept letting it happen.
        Even though Jolly and LaVaugh seen very different their connection is really strong. LaVaughn listens to Jolly when she needs someone and stays patient while she cries about her messed up life. LaVaughn's life isn't perfect either, she struggles in her own way. Her and her mom are fighting about Jolly being a bad influence and how she can't even pay LaVaughn for the babysitting. LaVaughn also needs to pay for her own college and keep up her grades especially since no one in her family has ever gone to college. Shes trying to get money to save for college with the jobs shes doing, but Jolly can't pay her. If Jolly never gets the money to pay LaVaughn back, her babysitting would have been a waste of her time, the time she could have been using to study for a test or do home work or save up for college.
        Did LaVaughn stop caring about college? I don't think she ever stopped or even forgot why she started babysitting in the first place but I think college stopped being her main priority. She was caring more about Jolly and her kids then her own future, I don't think she ever questioned Jolly about when she would get her money back anyways. In my opinion I don't think college ever left her mind, it just got pushed to the side. Some people get sidetracked by life, even the little things. Like how a babysitting job could turn into a family relationship with two people who wouldn't have come together otherwise. Jolly and LaVaughn both have big hopes, for LaVaughn it's to go to college and make her mom proud and for Jolly it's to raise two happy healthy kids. Jolly's hope becomes LaVaughn's hope too. These two people influence each other in a positive way throughout the story changing their lives for the better. I know that anyone reading this will be able to connect and start thinking about their own future and how anything unexpected can leave an important  mark.