After: All I Know of Freedom by Carol Emshwiller

After is a series of nineteen stories of apocalypse and dystopia that I have just began to read. One of my favorite stories that I have read so far is All I Know of Freedom. This story is of a girl who escapes her new parents and goes to frolic freely through the world. She doesn't know how to read but she knows what the word school means and knows that she will be able to learn there. She finds a school and enters and finds a friend named Eppie. She tells her that there is a ship leaving earth soon with a bunch of girls and boys so that they can reproduce once they get to a new planet. They say that the world will be ending soon and they have to leave. The girl had found a dog who had become her best friend named Mr. O' Brien after the only man she had ever met. Eppie says that she will have to get rid of him but she doesn't want to. She goes and tries to find someone who will keep him on earth and meets a woman that thinks that the people who are leaving are crazy. She offers to house the girl and the dog if she takes care of her farm with her. She decides last minute to go back to her and leave her new friends behind. I really liked this story because the girl had made her own decision and stood by what mattered to her. It inspired me.