In the pro­logue titled “Be Ready When the Luck Hap­pens,” the author reflects on a sig­nif­i­cant mem­o­ry from a chilly fall day in 1965. They describe vis­it­ing their boyfriend, Jef­frey Garten, a charm­ing sopho­more at Dart­mouth, while they were still nav­i­gat­ing their rela­tion­ship. The author arrived dressed for social­iz­ing, but Jef­frey want­ed to embark on an out­door hike at Balch Hill in Hanover, New Hamp­shire, which she per­ceived as an intim­i­dat­ing moun­tain.

Dressed in a pair of Jef­frey’s blue jeans—an inti­mate exchange for her sev­en­teen-year-old self—the author reluc­tant­ly fol­lowed him up the hill but soon felt exhaust­ed and declared she could go no fur­ther. This moment was chal­leng­ing for her, shaped by a child­hood where dis­agree­ment was often met with strict con­se­quences. How­ev­er, despite want­i­ng to please Jef­frey, she felt the urge to assert her­self.

Jef­frey urged her to keep mov­ing, even play­ful­ly attempt­ing to push her up the hill, which incit­ed laugh­ter rather than com­pli­ance. This humor prompt­ed the author to con­sid­er a dif­fer­ent approach; instead of climb­ing straight up, she walked back and forth across the path, tak­ing her own route. Expect­ing anger from Jef­frey for not fol­low­ing the trail, she was sur­prised to find him laugh­ing at her clev­er­ness.

From this expe­ri­ence, the author dis­tilled two valu­able lessons: first, life will present many chal­lenges akin to Balch Hill, often filled with unex­pect­ed turns and hur­dles. Sec­ond, they learned the impor­tance of hav­ing some­one sup­port­ive by their side dur­ing these chal­leng­ing times—someone like Jef­frey, who brought laugh­ter, under­stand­ing, and accep­tance. Ulti­mate­ly, this moment solid­i­fied her fond­ness for him, lead­ing to their mar­riage three years lat­er.

The pro­logue serves as a pre­cur­sor to a larg­er mem­oir, fram­ing per­son­al growth through the lens of piv­otal moments and rela­tion­ships in life. The author’s eager­ness to share her sto­ry hints at a deep­er explo­ration of these expe­ri­ences through­out the nar­ra­tive.