Marrying a Good Story and a Well-Formed Argument: The Metanarrative of Zyx

Abstract

This article uses a metanarrative of a fictional, gender identity minority community college student (named Zyx) to elucidate and humanize the experiences that students in this population undergo throughout the course of their college career. Using a journal entry format, Zyx (they/them) is followed from the day before their first day at school through to their graduation. Their experience includes being first-generation and mixed race, living through COVID-19, coping with academic failure, and ultimately triumphing over adversity. The story is meant to cover some of the myriad obstacles to success faced by gender identity minorities attending community college while also highlighting their strength, resilience, and humanity. The metanarrative can be read as a stand-alone piece of fiction, but it is also data-driven and has extensive footnotes that explain where the fictional ideas came from including academic and informal research, anecdotal evidence, and stories shared by trans*-spectrum community college students.