Senior year was over. Only a few of my classmates we're headed off to college, everyone else was headed right to work. I hadn't decided yet. My parents had a solution of their own, see end me off to college for at the very least, a full four years. I should have everything figured out by then, right? But I didn't want anything to do with their plan and what they wanted for me. I wanted to get a steady job now, and save up for college-if I wanted to go in a year or two, or maybe three. As I wandered through the hallways of my former Highschool, I stopped at almost every doorway to talk with teacher after teacher, getting their opinions on my predicament. It was pointless, every single one of them agreed with what my parents had told me, insisting that I apply to a college, or at least highly consider the option. After nearly four hours of talking in circles, I got in my car and left. Driving home, I saw several people on the sidewalks, all of their belongings piled high onto shopping carts and sticking out of plastic bags. These were the people I'd always been told I'd become if I didn't go to college and get a job that my mother considered decent. My phone rang from the backseat of the car, and after a few seconds I heard the thump of it hitting the floor boards. As soon as I'd parked in the driveway of my parent's house, I retrieved my phone. Three missed calls from each of my parent's. I called Dad back first.

"Where have you been?" His voice answered.
"I went to school to talk with some of my teachers, now I'm parked in the driveway. I told both of you last night" I explained to him.
"What did they say?"
"What do you think they said?"
"Kayla." He says sternly.
"The same thing you and Mom have told me every day. I swear I'm going to go crazy if anyone tells me that again. Can't I just have one summer to think about it?"
"You know we only want the best for you, Kayla. It's better to get everything planned out now."
"I graduated two weeks ago, Dad, not a year ago. I can decide for myself. Just because both of you went to college doesn't mean that I have to do the same." I hung up, and dropped my phone on the passenger's seat. Staring at the steering wheel, I thought of my choices. Stay at home, and keep stalling on the whole college idea, or move out of the house and get a job someplace.

"If you would at least try to get into a college and became a doctor, you might earn a lot of money." Another message from Mom told me. Leading up to my becoming a senior at Vidmont High School, it was always about finding a job that I enjoyed. Since I'd graduated, it'd only about going to college to get a better job than everyone else that had been in my class. The way I looked at it, college meant a whole bunch of money I'd have to pay back afterwards. I climbed out of my car, and started walking along the sidewalk, my hands stuffed into my jacket pockets. I walked up the tree-lined hiking trail that led up the hill near my house. After I'd reached the top, and the end of the trail, I looked over the whole city. I could see the college campus on one side of the city, and the many different offices and factories on the other side.

Without warning, two barely visible men stood on either side of me. One was clothed all in white, and the other, black. I peered to my right at the man in white, thinking I'd imagined them until he'd put his hand on my shoulder. I already knew what he'd say, "Go to school, learn everything you can, become the smart young woman your parents want you to be." But was that what I wanted?

I turned to my other side, the man in black smiled at me I could almost hear the words that I knew would come out of his mouth, "Escape this place. Be the girl you want to be. Your parents have been in control of you for nineteen years. You're old enough to be on your own."