We Choose - Becca Gaines Archer - Bog

We Choose is an intriguing story that spins itself around several characters at different points in their lives. Some are stumbling toward the responsibilities of adulthood, while others refl ect on the opportunities they left behind in their youth. Warren Carlton, a guidance counselor at a high school in the South Bronx, and Lois Roberts, the school's principal, watch apprehensively as the young people around them come of age in a society that seems more sadistic and where the voice of social justice is more subdued than had been the case in the baby-boomer society of their day. Many years have passed since they made the decisions that set them on their paths in their careers and personal lives. They now fi nd themselves pondering the question that we each must answer for ourselves: Am I happy with the choices that I made? Best friends Mia Maldonado and Lily McGlenn, fourteen-year-old freshmen, and their schoolmate Dayton Dennis, a senior, are all faced with the cruel realities of their circumstances. They must decide for themselves what they want from life and, more importantly, what they will give to it. Two of them emerge from their circumstances armed with lessons learned, while the other remains entrenched within the brutal consequences of defi ance and bad choices. At some point in life the inevitable bottom line question-What do I want out of life?- hits us all squarely in the face. Although a simple question, as this story portrays, the answer is not always easily attained.