i was 24 when i left college in austin, texas, where i was scheduled to graduate in one semester because of a heartbreak. i moved back home to my parents' farmhouse outside of corpus christi to finish school and figure out my future. these are a handful of stories from my last summer in college, when i built up too-cool walls around my heart and what looks today like it might have been an addiction, but i never could quite stop laughing at myself.