Changing Places

Abstract

This project is an examination, recognition, and celebration of the hard work it is to grow up in today’s world and become one’s own person. This is the first three chapters of a novel consisting of a series of young adult short stories that explores the interconnection of people and place, specifically one very rural valley road in the Driftless region of Wisconsin that is experiencing change. The stories follow a school year with the main character of each story being a high school student and minor characters being their families, other families living on the same road, classmates, teachers, and community members. The young people in the stories go through many changes in their families, their peer groups, their communities, and society at large. The land changes through the seasons and year to year. These changes are shown by going through the seasons of a single school year with main characters in different grades. Each month of the school year, a story focuses on one main character with other students as supporting characters and their interactions with the land. These stories weave together and by showing a freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior change and develop through the stories of one year, it represents how a person would grow through four years of high school.