[ WP ] At age 18 you are required to go to city hall and have someone read you through a choose your own adventure style book of your life while you make the choices . The choices are permanent and will determine your life . You are the clerk reading the books .

`` So, like, what are we talking? Does everything have to be decided now? Or is there still some room for...'' 
 
 `` Adam, shh!'' The kid flushes. `` I'm sorry,'' his mother says as she nudges him through the door and toward me. `` He's just nervous.'' 
 
 `` It's all right. They always have a lot of questions. You remember, do n't you?'' I chuckle, and I see it in her eyes - the momentary remembrance of that instant years and years ago, before everything in her life was set in stone. Her head droops a little. 
 
 `` Yes. I do...'' 
 
 `` Then you can just go outside and wait. This will only take a little while.'' After the briefest hesitation she finally meanders off, and I reach out to take the kid by the shoulder and guide him back into my office. It's surprising how quickly you get used to dealing with the kids - their parents. 
 
 I've only been a Life Administrator for two years, but I've already seen and dealt with every situation that you could think of. The kids who were excited to find out what life had in store for them - those were the ones who'd been trained to make the right choices practically from the time they were born. Then there were the kids who had n't prepared at all - who were suddenly faced with the realization that they had to decide the way the rest of their life would unfold in just two hours without any guidance or foresight. 
 
 This kid is somewhere between the two. I see him mulling over the basics as he sits down in the chair before my desk, lips moving. He starts as I pull out The Book and lay it down in front of me. 
 
 `` So, shall we get started?'' I ask. He nods. `` Well, it looks here like you did pretty well in high school - could have done a little bit better, but you had a girlfriend from Sophomore to the first part of your senior year. So college is an option. Do you want to go to college?'' 
 
 `` I... uhm... yeah, of course.'' He nods again. 
 
 `` Fantastic...'' I check off the box and wait as The Book readjusts to accommodate his new life plans. `` Now, Ivy League is out of the question. A good state school is an instant in, but there are a handful of private schools that would take you. That's gon na cost quite a bit more though.'' 
 
 `` Uh, a state school is fine. I mean, so long as its a good one...'' 
 
 `` Fantastic. And do you have a major picked out?'' 
 
 The first few questions are easily handled, as per usual. Fifteen minutes in and the kid's decided on a business major, about forty thousand in loan debt, and an apartment rather than student housing. 
 
 ( I do n't tell him that if he'd stayed in the dormitories he would have met the girl of his dreams. We are n't allowed to tell them these things, and even I only get a fleeting glimpse of this possibility as it flits away while his destiny rewrites itself on the ink of The Book's pages. ) 
 
 `` All right. So your dad dies when you're twenty-one... Sorry...'' I ignore the stricken look on his face. `` Anyway, it happens in the first part of your junior year. Your mother takes it pretty hard. Do you take time off and go home or do you finish up?'' 
 
 `` I... wait.'' He clasps his hand over his face. `` This is a bit much. Can I have a second to think it over?'' He goes silent. The right choice is obvious as far as I'm concerned, but it's not my job to advise. When he says, `` I guess... I guess I'll go home. I can always go back later,'' I ca n't help but wince a little, but I mark the choice off in The Book. 
 
 `` Okay... so you do n't find out until you've been home for a while how badly your father is in debt. He gambled a lot when he made his decisions - always a shame when these things do n't pan out. You get an offer to sell it pretty early on and your mother says it's your call since she never understood these kinds of things. Do you?'' 
 
 `` What? Of course not. That business is the reason I chose my major...'' 
 
 `` Okay.'' Another check. `` Well, unfortunately you did n't finish your degree, so nobody's willing to give you a loan. You go under pretty fast. Your mother ca n't handle the pressure and she's been hiding her depression from you for a while now. You'll be twenty-five when she commits suicide...'' 
 
 His eyes widen. I know we've touched on something he ca n't possibly understand. `` She... she made that choice? But how could she make that choice? I do n't... why would someone choose that?'' 
 
 `` It's not a choice,'' I say, lowering my glasses for a moment so I can look him properly in the eye. `` Listen, I come across this sort of thing a lot. I know it can be pretty surprising, but for some people it's just... an inevitable outcome. She's never been happy with any of the choices that she made. So.'' 
 
 He's close to hyperventilating, I can tell, but to his credit he nods and prepares to continue. `` So,'' he mimics. 
 
 `` After your mother commits suicide, you do n't really have many options for the next few years. You're left with a lot of debt, and you do n't have the support you need to go back to college. You're going to take up a pretty decent job with a bank, though - that'll get you through the next several years until you're thirty.'' 
 
 `` Okay.'' 
 
 `` Now, when you're thirty-one, you'll get an offer from the company you're with - promotion, but you'll have to move to Virginia.'' 
 
 `` Is it good money?'' 
 
 `` Enough to pay down a good number of your debts.'' 
 
 `` I guess it's a smart move, then.'' He sighs. I make another check mark. He is n't thinking about it right now, but that move across the country will mean the end of a lot of important relationships - all the friends who help him over those difficult several years become less important, building lives of their own and slowly losing touch until they only know each other through social media updates. 
 
 `` A few months in, you meet a girl.'' 
 
 `` Right.'' 
 
 `` Do you ask her out?'' 

