Summer Reading Response: Make Lemonade

LaVaughn is a fourteen-year old high schooled girl whose goal is to find a part-time job. Her mom is always talking about college and saving up for it. During school one day, LaVaughn and her friends Myrtle and Annie check out available jobs on the school bulletin board. LaVaughn is the only one though, that chooses the babysitting job. Jolly is a 17 year old single mother who needs the babysitter. Jolly has to kids, Jeremy whose 2 years old and little Jilly whose still an infant. Life is a struggle for Jolly and her two kids, so LaVaughn decides to help Jolly out with or without pay, which is a big contradiction for LaVaughn’s mother whose focus is all on LaVaughn’s future.  

Throughout the story, no matter what, LaVaughn stays by Jolly's side. LaVaughn's mother disagrees with that though because LaVaughn's mother thinks that if her child is working after school and sometimes even overtime, she should be getting paid. LaVaughn's mother keeps telling her to leave the job because she doesn't think that Jolly is a good influence to LaVaughn. LaVaughn could be sticking around with Jolly because she feels bad for Jolly's two children who she loves very much, or because she's hoping that someday Jolly will finally pay her for her hours worked. 

If LaVaughn chooses to stick to the job, then her mother most likely will get upset about it due to type of environment that LaVaughn is being experienced to. Jolly though will be very relieved that she has someone to watch Jeremy and Jilly while she tries to go back to school and get herself back on track; while she settles herself. Jolly just got fired from her part-time job so matters are even worse now. Since LaVaughn's mother is always talking to her about college, LaVaughn has an idea about how to help Jolly get back into school to continue her career. With LaVaughn's help, Jolly predicts that everything will work out just fine. 

This story connects to real life, because today, there are many teenagers that are having children even though they aren't stable enough to support them. When they have children at young ages, then some of them have no choice but to drop out of school to raise their child. Most other parents like LaVaughn's mother don't agree to parents letting their children have children of their own at such young ages, therefore they don't want their kids like LaVaughn to be exposed to those types of situations.