Stuck With Mclean

In my life, I haven’t ever moved. I’ve lived in the same house, gone to the same school, and hung out with the same people. If you’re like me you don’t know what it’s like to get up and leave everything to start over in a new place. If you’re not like me, maybe you’ve moved once or twice, each time making new friends and building stronger bonds, while keeping in touch with your past. Moving was just a couple hundred extra Instagram followers or Facebook friends. However, no one I know has the same life as Mclean Sweet from the book What Happened To Goodbye. Or should I say Lizbet Sweet? Or Beth Sweet? Or Eliza Sweet? Every time Mclean moves she takes on a new identity. She leaves her past behind her and starts fresh with a new house, name, personality, everything. This girl with four alter egos doesn’t handle it so well when her past starts to intertwine into her new life.

Everything about Mclean’s move to Lakeview has been going wrong. Her new name didn’t work out and now she is stuck with her own stupid name. This school has a “Welcome” club that forces her to make friends right from the start. And she met Dave. Mclean thinks she is starting to like this boy, but getting into a relationship goes against everything she believes in. All Mclean wanted was to be anyone but herself. But herself is the one thing she has to be.

Ever since her mom left Mclean and her dad for the Defriese basketball coach, Mclean has wanted nothing to do with her or anything that involved her former life. During one unwanted phone call, she finally cracks and says “It’s your fault it’s like this. You’re the one who left.” It is after this phone call while she is outside playing basketball with Dave when she begins to realize the truth: you can’t hide from your past forever. Now she is forced to rethink her whole lifestyle. Is it really better to run away from your problems?

That one simple question opens up a world of light for Mclean. She starts to open up to new possibilities she never even thought possible before. Simple pleasures like dating and making new friends are now acceptable to her. Now beginning to realize the simple pleasures of life, she can dig roots into the town, and finally call someplace her home. Dave, along with her other friends, are becoming “2am’s”, someone you can call at 2 in the morning and they will be there for you. This being an entirely new concept to Mclean, leads her to think no. No it’s not better to run away from your problems -- because if you keep running, eventually there will be no one left.

Mclean had a hard life. Instead of facing it, she ran away and later realized that might not have been the best choice. She now knows that instead of making a whole new Facebook or Instagram account, that you just keep adding to the same one, and keep in touch throughout our life. All her old identities are now in the past and she will continue to be Mclean forever -- because that’s who she is.