1940s: Graduation, a job, and a future she's not certain she wants

The first week of summer is Grace's last week at university. Graduation is closing fast, and with it the workload increased. There are a lot of late nights writing papers and preparing presentations, but Grace is determined to give it her all to get the best grades possible. Often this means she comes home late at night, and having little time for either brother, friends or boyfriend.

Nerves are stating to show with everyone at the door, although Grace thinks some are going way overboard with how they express theirs. Also, why the balcony? So many questions.

When Grace won't come and visit him, Thomas makes sure to visit her, joining the girls at the dorm for dinner. Not that he's complaining about being the only guy with a room filled with girls.

As the term starts coming to an end and the presentations are held and term papers handed in and final exams taken, Grace takes the time to spend with her boyfriend. She really has been neglecting him (a bit too easily perhaps) and tries to make it up to him with a day out in the sun. They start at the library, where Grace has brought some of all the room mates cooking with her for a picknick when suddenly David springs a question on her that she isn't prepared - or really ready - for.



What does she say to that? Grace isn't sure, never thought David was that serious and haven't even considered the possibility. Yet she's not sure how to say that. It's a serious question, from a man she has been dating for a while, who she has great combability with, who is kind and who has an education and who is to say that she'll ever meet someone like him again? What if by saying no, she misses out? So she says yes, because either way he has one more semester to go, and her parents will need to approve, and she will have some time to think back home before any of this becomes a reality.

Besides, she doesn't want to ruin the day.

They take a stroll down to the water next to the pub, and goes swimming in the river. And she cannot deny they have fun, or that David is a great kisser and she really does like him a lot. Is it love? Maybe? But how do you know?




That night, they all go out to celebrate the end of term. Grace has gotten her results, A+ on everything, and that, if anything is worth celebrating. It's a great last night on the town. Tomorrow is graduation, then she needs to go back home where Hazel's husband has found work for her. Graduating with honors and a business degree, she'll start work as a file clerk at a legal firm. Not exactly what she had dreamed about, but what is open to women. She's been told the position has advancement opportunities. Do well and she might become a secretary with time.

Meanwhile her male course mates are starting out as bankers, investors or administrators at executive levels. It's almost as if life isn't fair for women.
"Men needs more money to support us, and you'll be married before long anyway, so what do you need a job for?" her friends tell her with winks and laughs.





While her future career might not be something to rave about, nothing can detract from the feeling of achievement when she goes to her graduation. She has better grades than most this year, not a single one that is not an A+ in three terms. She has every right to be proud.

Returning home is a bit bitter sweet. On the one hand, she misses her sisters and brother, as well as mom and dad, but moving back home isn't exactly what she dreamed of. But she tells herself it's only temporary. She arrives late, so that first night she doesn't do much other than catching up with her siblings and settling into her room as mom cleans the house for the dinner party they're hosting tomorrow. Grace is meeting Hazel's new husband for the first time, and David has taken the trip out here in order to meet her parents. Mom is all up in arms about meeting the boy who has asked her daughter, potentially, to marry him, even if it wasn't a proposal per say it was undoubtedly the promise of one.



Sleeping in her old room, in her old bed feels strange.

But the next day, after church, it's time for reunite with her twin sister, and to meet her husband, and to introduce David. Both young men are a bit overdressed for the situation, but no one minds. Nash takes the opportunity to grill David, on his interests, his values, his future job. "I am majoring in the culinary arts and am hoping to own and run a restaurant one day," he answers. Nash is hesitant about a man who cooks, it's so feminine. The men's combability is way off.




So when the evening is over and David has returned to his hotel, Grace asks her father what he thinks. "If you don't like him I won't marry him, daddy," she says in a rare display of insecurity. He's the only guy she's ever dated, how will she know if he's the right one?



But while Nash might have some doubts, he doesn't express them to his daughter.



So then it's settled. David is returning to his last term, to finish at the same time as Thomas, and then he'll relocate to Oasis Springs and they can start planning a wedding. In the meantime Grace will stay at home, with her parents. Grace just wished her emotions weren't all over the place when it came to how she's feeling about it.