Grace Blevins

Character backstory by dreamer

To say the Societal standards of rural Georgia where grace grew up was “parochial” is just a disappointing understatement because it was nothing less than patriarchy. Women were not allowed to pursue goals or futures that led them away from what the locals called “feminine duty”. They’d probably tend the farm or do meagre housework for the rest of their lives and everyone dared to say that was the greatest level of fulfillment attainable for females.

The Blevins living in the heart of the town also believed and venerated the customs and values the land has, but grace had always wanted to be something more than just a farm girl in Georgia or a full house wife.

The head of the Blevins, grace’s father, although opposed to female education allowed the females in his home to get an education up to high school so they could be “better wives.”he said. This decision he soon came to pain-scathingly regret soon after grace graduated from high school, secretly wrote university entrance exams and got invited to MIT.

Grace had always known the time would come when she would have to tell her family about her decision to pursue a career for herself outside the rural confines of Georgia. She knew her family including her parents would never support her decision but she still held on to the sliver of hope that the inevitable result might be different. All of which was blown away with the ferocious rantings of grace’s father: he talked a lot about how the world was not a feminine world and how females showed just coop up at their husband’s houses and silently do as they’re told and how her “inutile”pursuits would tarnish their reputation in the society.

However seeing that none of what he said dented grace’s steel resolve he decided to bring up the story of Marie brown, a girl said to have gone to the big city in lieu of staying in the town to pursue a professional career and never came back and was never heard of again.

This story had its way of destroying the will power of girls that tried to escape the bars of straining paradigm set by the town and it shattered grace’s.

Grace sat down on the extreme end of a steep hill over a flowing river, stared at her MIT acceptance letter with the lethargic wind blowing softly on her she thought about her ambitions. She thought about the various rumors about Marie brown and how they said she was found dead or was into prostitution or something.

Mid-thought, a queer lady approaches her and inquired about her worries, the lady who, to the bewilderment of grace, was Marie brown.

Marie told grace a lot about the city and the professional world and how less hard-boiled it was in comparison to the parochial opinions of the people of rural Georgia. She also told grace;

“Weak people put you down,grace. to make you feel weak so they can feel strong, don’t let them.”

Grace saw that in the eyes of her family when they spewed carefully crafted disparaging remarks. they were just scared, scared that she’d go off and become something above them and because she was a girl it was even all the more so an unutterable sin.

She left Georgia and went on to study at MIT (while living with Marie) claiming two degrees and joining NASA at a record setting age. She wanted so badly to prove to everyone back home that she could do it, that she could reach unattainable heights. So she sprinted straight and head first to her goal.

A while after she got into NASA she phoned home to break the news about her accomplishments, still hoping as she did when she was a kid that the inevitable would be different but for a second time she was shunned. Not even her academic excellence or her great professional strides faxed the cold indifferent hearts of her parents, whom still her a disgrace for leaving home.

Despite this setback she still pushed forward in accomplishing her goals to prove to the world just how indispensable females of her caliber truly are.