Enough

Hutchinson grew up in Pennington, New Jersey, where her father owned a landscaping company. Due to her family’s wariness of doctors, hospitals, and medications, Hutchinson and her younger brother were both born at home. She had close relationships with her mother’s side of the family and credits her father and grandmother with being especially hardworking.

Hutchinson recalls the confusion of the 9/11 attacks, which happened when she was five years old. While she did not understand the events, she and her family bought American flags and planted them on their lawn. That autumn, her father took her hunting, where she saw him and his friends kill a turtle for sport. Horrified, Hutchinson decided to never hunt; her father chastised her and told her that “warriors” are not afraid of “the circle of life” (9). She reveals that her father was highly distrustful of the government, telling her that “privacy is power” and that she should not trust anyone who worked for the government, including the police (9). Nevertheless, she admired her Uncle Joe, who was in the Indiana National Guard. Hutchinson’s father even refused to take her to the hospital for stitches after she injured herself on one of his landscaping machines.

Still a kindergartener, Hutchinson remembers her parents arguing a lot and was surprised to learn that the family was moving to Spencer, Indiana, where her aunt and uncle lived. Hutchinson has fond memories of spending time with Uncle Joe, who taught her about serving the community. However, after six months, the family returned to Pennington as Hutchinson’s father could not bear to leave New Jersey. They moved to a new home in a more rural area to satisfy his need for privacy. Hutchinson agreed with her dad that she would be the first person in her family to attend college. 

Hutchinson’s dad and mom often disagreed about how to parent; her dad allowed Hutchinson a great deal of independence and treated her as an adult, while her mother was more protective. As a first grader, her father bought her a four-wheeler and allowed her to ride it through the snow. When she crashed, he told her to get up and keep riding; when she refused, he threw her key into the snow and told her to find it. Hutchinson was afraid of her father’s temper and tried to minimize conflict between her parents.

Meanwhile, Uncle Joe served in Afghanistan, and Hutchinson was thrilled to receive emails and presents from him while he was overseas. He sent her an American flag, which she felt was the most “meaningful” present she had ever received. When he returned from Afghanistan, she felt overwhelmed with admiration and patriotism. When Uncle Joe and Aunt Steph moved to Washington, DC, Hutchinson visited and immediately liked the city. She writes, “I felt a magnetic bond—a sense of premonition—that Washington was my home” (22).

Hutchinson’s father worked two jobs and was quiet and withdrawn at home. While he once hated TV and felt it was a government ploy to “rot our brains,” he began watching more of it. He particularly liked the reality show The Apprentice and considered Donald Trump, the host, a business role model. Hutchinson feels that while her dad demanded respect for his role as a provider, he did not respect her mother’s contributions to the household. Her father wanted to open a gelato business but did not have time to dedicate to it, so her mother took on this new responsibility, and Hutchinson enjoyed helping her in the store. This venture required Hutchinson and her mother to begin work early in the morning and finish late at night.

During this period of her life, Hutchinson’s parents' relationship deteriorated, and her father frequently threatened to leave the family. Hutchinson became more anxious, which her mother tried to treat with essential oils. Ultimately, her parents decided to separate, and Hutchinson, her mother, and her brother moved into a townhouse in Pennington. During her first visit to her father’s, he refused to see her mother at all and yelled at Hutchinson when she told him he needed to take them to school in the morning. Her mother came and got them, and they never visited their dad again. As Hutchinson got older and entered high school, she became more focused on academics and, at a teacher’s suggestion, joined the Youth Advisory Board as a student representative.

While in high school, Hutchinson’s mother was diagnosed with sarcoma cancer. Hutchinson had considered her mother “invincible” but knew that if her mother did pass away, she would never live with her father, whose behavior she found alienating and embarrassing. In 2012, Hutchinson completed an assignment comparing Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney with Democratic President Barack Obama and decided that she supported Romney. She found herself increasingly interested in politics as a career, and while her mother was hesitant, her Aunt Steph was supportive.

Hutchinson’s mother recovered from cancer and began dating her colleague, Paul. Hutchinson liked Paul immediately, and he became “Mom’s soulmate, Jack’s role model, and my best friend” (31). Her father withheld child support from the family and insisted that Hutchinson could receive money in person rather than giving it to her mother. He left strange “gifts” at their house, such as live turtles, and refused to take Hutchinson to the hospital when she needed an emergency appendectomy.

Near the end of her high school career, Hutchinson applied to Gettysburg College and hoped that her father would help support her with the college fund he had supposedly started when she was little. Hutchinson was waitlisted there and decided to attend Christopher Newport University in Virginia instead, making her the first in her family to attend college.