I take a deep breath. Swallowing down a terrifying mixture of emotions and worries, I lean forward and close my eyes. What’s the worst thing that could happen? It’s a virtual world. There’s no chance I could be hurt or anything… Every twenty-one year old goes through this process, and most of them have been completely fine. Why would I be any different? I’ve worked my whole life for this… I’ve been a good person. I’ve given to charity. Put up with intolerable people. Helped out the poor and sick. My morality is unquestionable, for the most part. So why am I so nervous? I put my head in my hands, trying to calm myself down. I inhale, then exhale slowly. I’ll be safe. Nothing will happen.

An olive skinned lady with raven black hair walks into the waiting room. “Paisley Ashford?” she calls in a loud voice. My heart beats faster. I wipe my sweaty hands on my pants and stand up. I walk over to the lady and she gives me a kind smile. “Are you ready?” she asks, but I know that if I say I’m not I’ll be whisked away to a new world anyways. There is no escaping this. I nod a little too vigorously, and she senses my discomfort. “Don’t worry…” the woman trills. “Everything will be okay. Follow me.” The lady scrawls a few notes on her pink clipboard, and hastily starts walking. She leads me into a dark, rather small room with no furniture nor decorations. The only thing in the room is a uncomfortable looking chair, with a VR headset resting on it. I pause in the doorway and take in the room. I’ll be here for a year. A whole year. Without my family, without my friends, but instead in a whole different world. The olive skinned woman gestures to the chair. I trudge over to the it, my legs feeling limp like noodles. I exhale shakily, before sitting down. The lady stands in the doorway and watches as I pull the headset over my eyes. Then I hear her footsteps retreating down the hallway.

Darkness. All I see is black. I start to have doubts. I don’t want to do this. Panic sets in, and I reach up to take the headset off, but I can’t. It’s like it’s glued to my head. There really is no escaping this. I ball my hands up into fists so tight that my fingernails dig into my skin. There are a few more seconds of darkness before a world comes roaring to life in front of my eyes. Inhale. Exhale. I can do this. This might even be easy. That’s what I thought. Looking back on it, I could never been more wrong.