BREAKING NEWS:

MISSING: Childhood, belonging to the High School Senior, Has Reportedly Gone Missing. Last Seen In College Councilor's Office. More Details to Follow as Investigation Continues. Stay Tuned.

Enter Patrick, a young man old enough to legally to fight for his country, yet not quite old enough to legally have a drink. His mother still washes his clothes for him yet he has to pay for his own car insurance with his part-time job. Sometimes caught up in the drama that ensues in his small pod of friends from school, he gets overwhelmed easily.

On most nights this young man will play videogames until one or two in the morning. He has always been a well behaved kid, and has never really gotten into trouble in school.  He, like the majority of his friends, has perfected the casual way of saying “I have no idea what I am going to do” by shrugging his shoulders and raising his hands when someone asks about his plans for the future.

The past few years of high school had taught Patrick many things. Patrick knows how to identify the organelles of a cell and how to use the quadratic formula. He, like all of his peers, is well informed on how to duck and cover his head under a desk in the event of an earthquake. He still has not perfected his use of “there, their, and they’re” in the correct context, but he tries his best.

Patrick spent the past 12 years of his life in school preparing for what he thought the real world would be. But the moment his parents began pushing him out of the nest, he felt more unprepared that ever before.

It all started when Patrick needed a physical from his doctor his junior year of high school. To try out for the baseball team the school required that each student had a physical examination on file in case of emergencies. When he explained this to his mother, she said something he never thought he would hear; “You are going to have to call and schedule the appointment yourself. You are getting too old for your mother to speak to adults for you.”

This statement sent anxious shiver down Patrick’s spine and he immediately protested. So he wouldn't have to confess that he was deep down afraid to schedule an appointment, he made an excuse, “I actually have a lot of homework to do..Ugh. Can you just do it for me?”.  By no surprise, his mother insisted it was now his responsibility to schedule appointments for himself. Especially if the appointment was for a physical for a sport he wanted to play.

As his junior year went on, his mother had Patrick picking up small responsibilities similar to the first. Without Patrick even noticing, she introduced more and more duties to him. He was now a champion at changing car tires, couponing at the grocery store, and folding fitted sheets. He was becoming quite the well rounded young man.

Once senior year started, Patrick was faced with planning his own future. He had the world at his fingertips. His school college guidance counselor spoke with him about what he would like to do in the future. She laid out many colorful forms and packets full of information on universities, trade schools, jobs, and the military. All Patrick could do is sit there with his jaw dropped to the floor.  This type of “adulting” was much different than what his mother had been showing him. He had never been taught the right way to make life altering decisions.

The entire time the councilor was talking, he could only faintly hear her as if she were very far away. The main event was all happening inside Patrick’s head. As she spoke, Patrick began feeling the same anxious sensation he got when his mother first asked him to schedule his own appointment for the doctor. If one were to describe the way Patrick looked, they may say he appeared to have the flu or maybe even jacked up on drugs.  He kept a steady shake in his leg that released all the nervous energy as he sat in the office chair. His clammy hands ran up and down the top of his thighs as if to dry them off. He felt a bead of sweat drip down from his forehead while at the same time his body shivered. The last thing he remembered from that moment in her office was breathing in and out so fast he thought he might of set the record as the world’s fastest (and also worst) breather. 

Patrick awoke to the sound of the blaring alarm clock his mother got him back in junior year. He tousled around in the bed sheets with his eyes still shut, hoping to go back to sleep like he did everyday. When he finally opened his eyes, he felt a wave of confusion wash over him. Similar to the confusion he felt when he was a child and woke up in his cozy bed instead of the couch in front of the TV that he knew he fell asleep on.