The Ark Diary of Dylan De Rovia Book One of De Rovia Diaries

A Declaration of Adulthood

Friday, December 11, 2149

Dad's watch had a few problems but this morning when I looked it was working. The whole sim I finally know the right way to assemble it. I can't wait to get back home and start making in the real world. I'm at school now just going through the motions right now.

Sitting in the library waiting for my next class. I always loved the smell of this place. When it was new this place probably had a fresh smell like new boots. Now it smells old not in a bad away more like a faded smell of heavy paper. Some of the books have names written in it. Others have notes in them or little drawings in the margins. I might have added my name in a book or two.

Going down the row I found the book Moby Dick I tried to read it three times. The first time I made it twenty pages in I wrote in the margins DD is done. I saw the drawing a little skull with dead eyes. My initials had gained a few others added to it. The next time I made it to page fifty-seven. Last time I was on page eighty-three.

"Oh no it's the side piece."

"Dumpling." I say watching her expression change. "I told Kye about you he said your like his cute cousin isn't that sweet we'll all be family one day."

"What are doing here De Rovia shouldn't be fixing a tractor or something." Her face is twisted into scowl she meant it as an insult but something in me just clicked.

I feel my face morph into this huge smile. "Are are absolutely right."

The three girls stay stunned in place while I run through the halls to the office. Its deserted at the moment. I come in such a rush that the curtains are ruffled, "I need to speak with the career counselor Detaun Hiker. "

The receptionist is so stunned she just nods pressing a key on her computer. "Are you in trouble?

"No," I say my consular comes in from his office. "I have a decoration."

Detaun leads me to his office. I've been here before when we talked about career options. He sits down, "Miss. De Rovia you have come to your decision."

"I have."

He brings up my file on his tablet then pulls out a sheet of paper its multi-layered with a white, yellow and pinks sheet. "Fill this out."

While I answer questions on the sheet I feel myself smiling. I know what this sheet means the white page goes to central office. The yellow sheet comes home with me it's my declaration of career meant to be framed. The pink one stays here filed away until my death probably then it will be recycled.

"So, Mecha station."

"Its where I belong. I was just going through the motion here."

He smiles. "I have been doing this job for thirty-five years. The last lesson people learn here is where they belong.

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I'm leaning back against Kye's door my watching him as walks to the house. Right now I'm so happy that I don't feel the cold just a blissful happiness. Kye see's me and breaks into run making to the lone house in record time.

"What happen now?"

I hold out my papers, "I'm done with school."

He takes the yellow papers reading them over. "I Dylan De Rovia do hereby declared my career to be in the field of Machine repair and maintenance. I thought you wanted to wait?"

"I did but someone asked me why I was still there and it just clicked that need to be there. That I was holding on something when should be letting go. I want to wake-up and be around people who like me and I want to learn about metal polishing and structural engineering."

Kye break into a smile and pulls me into a hug spinning me around. "Bae that's great."

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I did it early declared my career in the Mecha because of Amy the upper. In the library with a copy of Moby Dick looking all the times I'd tried to read it. Then Amy came up and asked me why I was there. The short answer was that I was afraid to grow-up but looking around staying a child was making me miserable.

The moment I put my name on the sheet of paper I felt so much better. I wrote how I sometimes feel like I have to jump this jump is it me jumping from a great height this one feels like I'm finally some solid ground. My childhood is gone but now I have a whole new life.

Mom and Dad are so happy about this about me finally saying it. They both said I was getting to grown-up. Dad looked at the sheet, he promised that we would get a frame for it. With paper being so rare here this thin yellow sheet has major value. On Earth when you graduated high school it was big step into adulthood. I've read about parties and ceremonies and seen vidoes them teenagers older than me in black robes walking across stages with papers in hand.

Here we don't have that I have this paper, it's going to be framed along with my certificate of birth. Then when I do complete the training program mechanics there will be a ceremony. I'll take the oath of Mecha which started out as joke between the first generation of apprentice a hundred years later it means something else.