standing next to an old maple tree, Timothy stared out at the horizon thinking about where he was going in his life. he had no plans and no one making plans for him. he was pretty much left to shape his own life. he never knew much about the world so this was rather difficult. it's like trying to build a house when all you've ever seen is the outside of one and have no idea of their internal framework. he's seen people and their lives and their relationships but never knew them beyond what he saw on the outside. he did not know how they really led their lives and got where they were or how they made those relationships. so for his own life, he could imagine an end product but not how to get there.

Timothy had gone to school his entire life and now it was over. 'now what?', he said to himself. he imagined himself coming home from some imaginary career to an imaginary wife to eat an imaginary dinner that smelled imaginarily great. he just had no idea where to begin to create this imaginary life in the real world. in his entire school career no class ever taught him what to do once he was out of school. there was no magic career fairy waiting for him when he received his diploma like he always thought there would be. she was supposed to have got him his career once he graduated but she never came. in school, things were just assigned to him and he did them. suddenly he is expected to go out on his own and find assignments a.k.a. a job. this is the opposite of what he had been trained for. things used to come to him and he did as little as he could get away with. how could he be expected to be the extra-credit type who seeks out work on their own?

Timothy felt the fear rise in his stomach as he pondered what would become of himself. he felt alone and clueless in a world that seemed to let him slip by. he wondered where help would come from and if it would ever come. he wondered if he would ever meet his imaginary wife and own his imaginary home. his sadness mixed with a bit of anger over the helplessness he felt.

a honking horn interrupted his train of thought and Timothy came out of the trance he had put himself under. Timothy walked back to his house and ate dinner.