Sofa Enlightenment
by Robert Broughton
#2 – Sex, School and Work
The narrator has his first girlfriend. He is happy to start with, but soon becomes frustrated with the restrictions and the mutual silence that surrounds their relationship. He fails to graduate from high school and accepts a civilian clerical job with the Navy. But the job is too depressing for him, so he goes back to school. A fight with his father ends with him being beaten up; something "breaks" inside of him. But, being an up-and-coming rock musician, he is now socially accepted and has a certain status. A relationship with a girl three years younger is more mature in a sexual sense but not emotionally. The narrator gets his first taste of depression after the relationship ends.