I know that I won’t be getting a Frenchie this week, or even this year, but I also know that I am not going to give up. In all the time I’ve spent blustering about my plan, researching breeds, and ending up disappointed, I’ve never allowed myself permission to get this dog just because I want it. I want it because it will comfort me when I feel nervous. Because it will be someone to talk to, and who will talk back to me in that uncanny, silent way that dogs do. Because it will force me to focus on caring for something else, and pull me out of my inescapable self-absorption—a student with two jobs trying to carve out an identity. Because people who don’t have a lot of money but work their asses off need things—comforts, love—as much as anyone. We are experts at saving, scrimping, and sacrificing. We should be able to have fancy dogs, too.
— How do our desires shape our identity? In the Morning News, Poet Amanda Williams is facing this question head-on: she is a graduate student with limited finances, but all she wants is a purebred French Bulldog.
Get the Longreads Weekly Email