I remember a time, that seems so far away now, when I could step out my door and not feel as if I was being watched. I remember when everything was simple and perfect. I always felt so safe and happy that nothing could bother me. My life was a routine I had started at age three. In the mourning I would get up and prepare for the day. Then I would go the school for a few hours to learn the reasons why we lived in such a planned city and had such a planned way of life. I remember each year the reason would change. My educator said it was because there were many reasons and many were too harsh to learn at a young age. After school I would take self-defense lessons and do complex exercise routines. I went home exhausted most of the time, but as I got older, the longer I could keep myself awake.  

     At age fifteen I stopped going to school, everyone did. It was time for us to join society. We all still lived at home, unless we decided to get small apartments near the large government building in the center of the city. We were required to get jobs. I stayed home and worked at the local market. Not selling, but taking inventory and putting out stock. It wasn’t much, but it payed well. Near my twenty-first birthday my life changed drastically.