Working in a candy store, seeing Harriet the not-so-little kid coming in every day, gave me greater hope for my looming adulthood. It’s not an impending doom the way people make it out to be, telling me to cherish my youth and not wish it all away. But I know better than they do that it’s entirely in my control.

“West Virginia, mountain mama / Take me home, country roads.” The official words of my sleepaway camp song have echoed in my head for the past 10 summers of my life.  As a preteen at my Jewish summer...