A Love Letter for Beth Kephart

A review of Small Damages, in the form of a letter to its author, Beth Kephart, that was published on M.L.T.S. Magazine's website.

Dear Beth Kephart,

It was a week ago that I wrote on my Facebook that I picked up your newest book, Small Damages, from my mother, to whose apartment it was mistakenly delivered. That night, I started reading it. And slowly, all week, I've savored your words. Your words that float on the tongue, light and tasty as mascarpone cheese laced with lemon curd.

Kenzie's dilemma is one that most young women are terrified of. It is my greatest fear; that I'll find myself "in the family way" before I'm ready, before others think I'm ready. And I know that if it ever happened, my mother would try to make my choices for me. Of course, she wouldn't offer me the option of traveling to Spain. That one is particular to Kenzie's situation.

So from page one, Kenzie had my empathy. And you, Beth, did beautiful things with it. I saw what she saw, heard what she heard, felt what she felt. You took me to Spain. Tossed me into that beautiful place, and while I knew it was horrible that Kenzie's mother sent her there, sort of against her will, I felt like she was incredibly fortunate in this "mistake."

And for all 288 pages, I followed this young girl, whose narration flows in the most beautiful, most poetic of ways but who talks like a normal teenager, and I loved her. I wanted to hug her, tell her it would be okay. I wanted much for this heroine. You had me going, Beth, you tricky angel. But in the end, I was satisfied, like I'd eaten a plateful of paella until I was just starting to feel full.

There's a sense of accomplishment that washes over you when a thick stack of neat, beautiful book pages stands resolutely between your fingers and you know that you've read those words, seen them with your eyes, felt them tremble on your lips, tipping in, sinking in. I'm not sure that feeling is ever stronger than when I held Small Damages, the back cover closed behind the last word, and realized that I'd just come back from Spain, back from a beautiful, lyrical world that I am anxious to dive back into.

You've done it again, you beautiful storyteller, you crafty word-stringer. I can't wait for the next book.

Love, Rosella

Buy Small Damages, Beth Kephart's latest young adult novel, at Amazon. (And please, please, buy the hardback version. It's gorgeously designed and so much more delightful than reading on a screen.)

A Millennial Finds the Secret to Happiness

Being satisfied with life is more than a Facebook status.

During a recent lunch hour, I withdrew the last $5 from my checking account. My savings account had only the required minimum balance of $5. I was at work and needed to eat something, lest I starve. And even though I asked for ranch dressing to accompany my chicken finger platter, I was given honey mustard. I didn’t complain and ate it eagerly.

When I got home, all there was left to eat was half a ham slice and enough asparagus for me and Chris, my boyfriend. I wasn’t sure where we’d get money for more food since our rent was due the next day and a check for an assignment from a local magazine that I completed six months ago had yet to arrive. But was I miserable? No.

Let me tell you why: Because my boyfriend was home after 12 hours of work, and I had gotten six more writing assignments in the last week. Life doesn’t get much better for me. And I write that with a smile.

Lately, I’ve read a lot about how college students and recent graduates are depressed in these days of economic turmoil and social unrest. Economics experts collect and analyze data about millennials. Baby boomers call my peers lazy. A lot of writers offer their advice to twentysomethings, and most of these would-be advisers are much older than those they’re trying so hard to guide. Then there’s Lena Dunham, creator of HBO’s Girls, who is labeled the voice of my generation and who, with her depiction of unsatisfactory or nonexistent careers and sex lives, makes young adulthood look pretty bleak.

By all media accounts, being young today is hard and depressing. There’s no way I can be happy, they say. And there’s no way I’m smart enough to figure out how to live my life to the fullest amid all this drudgery, right?

Don’t tell me how hard these times are, I say, or how you pity me because you had it so much easier when you were my age. I don’t want to hear it.

To read more of this roughly 700 word essay I wrote for Philadelphia Magazine's The Philly Post, click here.

Local teen Michael Leggerie makes Eagle Scout

Pastor Mary Konopka of Redemption Lutheran Church led the congregation through a quick service, including the singing of a hymn, before dismissing them. It was Sunday, April 15 and Boy Scout Troop 100 was setting up the church, located at the intersection of Rhawn and Bustleton Avenues, for Michael Leggerie II’s Eagle Court of Honor.

Most of the congregation remained for the 16-year-old’s ceremony, moving up to the front pews. At the center of those present was Leggerie’s mother, 12-year Juniata Park resident Judy Nicholls-Leggerie, doling out hugs and kisses and thanks for coming.

Soon a trumpet was sounded by Leggerie’s brother Benjamin, 15, and Scoutmaster Vince Serianni called for Troop 100 to carry in the flags and take their seats in the front row. Carmella "Millie" Cappetti, mother of two of Leggerie's fellow Boy Scouts, delivered her “Trail of the Eagle” speech. Troop 100's Alex Olsen, who recently made Eagle Scout, followed Cappetti with a speech about the importance of becoming an Eagle.

To become an Eagle, the highest rank in the Boy Scouts organization, one has to complete 21 merit badges, serving in one or more leadership positions, and complete a service project benefitting some group other than the Boy Scouts. Leggerie, a sophomore at Philadelphia’s Girard Academic Music Program, completed 35 merit badges before making Eagle. He served as Patrol Leader, Assistant Patrol Leader and Den Chief within Troop 100. For his service project, he operated the Kids Zone when Troop 100 volunteered with the American Heart Association's Heart Walk. Leggerie and his mother arrived at the walk before dawn to set up for the walk with the rest of the troop.

After Olsen’s speech, Leggerie’s parents, Nicholls-Leggerie and Michael Leggerie I, and his maternal grandparents, Richard and Jean Nicholls, were escorted by members of Troop 100 to the front of the church. They watched with smiles on their faces as Michael lit a candle signifying his rise to Eagle, and then his mother and father were asked to place Leggerie’s Eagle pin on the right side of his olive green Scouting uniform.

Leggerie placed an Eagle Mom pin on his mother’s ruffled black blouse before he was asked, along with all other Eagles present, to take the Scouting oath.

When given the chance to make his remarks, Leggerie said, "What's most important to me is what I learned. I learned so much about leadership."

Leggerie told The Juniata News after the ceremony that he hopes to carry these leadership skills through college, where he hopes to study mathematics and music, and into a career as a college professor.

During the ceremony, Leggerie thanked family and friends who had helped him on his journey to Eagle Scout. He had a mentor pin to give away and it was his grandfather, Richard Nicholls, whom he called forward for this honor.

Serianni read two of Leggerie’s many letters of congratulations – these were from President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden – and made some final statements before Pastor Konopka read the benediction and Troop 100 retired the flags.

Attendees were asked to join Leggerie and his family in the church’s basement for food and fun.

In honor of his achievement, Leggerie and his mother have been asked to join Rep. John Taylor in his office on the night of Tuesday, April 24.

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This story ran in today's issue of The Juniata News.

PRH: Breaking Grounds

The sun shone bright on the afternoon of November 1, All Saints Day and the day of the groundbreaking ceremony for the field house being built on the site of the McNichol Athletic Field on Moore Street between 25^th and 26^th Streets. Cheerleaders from Saints Neumann-Goretti High School stood in two rows facing each other, black and gold pom-poms in hand, to welcome guests to the field used by the school’s football and baseball teams. Nearly 100 alumni and friends turned out.

Once the crowd had assembled, the football and baseball teams and the cheerleaders gathered behind the podium set up on the southeast corner of the field. After John Murawski, the school’s president, led a prayer service, he spoke about the meaning of the field house that would be built on the site of the old Saint John Neumann school, which is now a senior citizens housing facility.

“God approves of recreation for the relaxation of the mind and the exercise of the body to foster mental, physical and spiritual well-being,” Murawski said.

In the early 1980s, the McNichol family, who used to run a trucking company, donated the land to the Saint John Neumann High School. Since the 2004 merging of Neumann, founded in 1934, and Saint Maria Goretti High School, established in 1955, the high schools have retained use of the field, although the athletes have had no where to change and shower. The Development staff at Neumann-Goretti wrote a grant and, in 2005, received a Department of Community and Economic Development grant in the amount of $250,000.

John Wagner, class of 1974, works in Health Care Services, the division of the Archdiocese that now owns the property where the field house will be built. While the school owns the field, but “so as to not take away from the field space we requested that Health Care Services allow us to build on their property,” Murawski said in a follow-up interview. Joe Sweeney, Secretary for Health Care Services, and Susanne Lurato O'Grady from Health Care Services were also instrumental in the process. “The largest contributor to moving this process along was Hank Clinton, class of 1971,” Murawski said. “Hank worked tirelessly to push all of the architectural through zoning properly, met with architect in the design phase and continues to oversee the legal aspects of building the field house.”

The field house represents the continued fulfillment of the Neumann-Goretti community’s commitment to “an unparalleled education for the youth of Philadelphia,” Murawski said. “This addition along with the recent additions of two new science labs, a media center, the City's first Nintendo Wii Fitness Lab and the City's first iPad Lab are proof that Neumann-Goretti has made this commitment and that we will continue our strides to offer a top notch Catholic Education here in South Philadelphia.”

The building of a field house, equipped with a coach’s office, a concession stand, a film room, 90 lockers, a storage area and a weight room, shows the 710 students currently enrolled in Neumann-Goretti “that the diocese and the school care enough for them to provide them with a state of the art facility that they will be able to be proud of,” Murawski said. “The students are chomping at the bit to say they were the first team to use the facility and they are all excited to be the first team to hang their championship plaque on the wall.”

Construction on the field house should be completed April 1, 2012 – just in time for baseball season, Murawski said.

This 600-word story appeared on page 92 in the Schoolyard section of Philadelphia RowHome Magazine's February/March/April 2012 issue.