Free Awaken by Katie Kacvinsky

for her perfect timing.

May 19, 2060
    Here’s the breakdown of a day in my life: My computer wakes me up every morning. You can program whatever morning greeting you want – mine plays a song it thinks I would like. It never shuts off – it just sleeps when I sleep. We have eight computers in our house: one in the kitchen, living room, basement, and dining room. Another is in my dad’s office and he and my mom both have computers in their bedroom, wired to separate wall screens. My dad even has a wall screen in his shower so he can watch the news in the morning. The noise never shuts off.
    My mornings begin with class. I attend DS classes for six hours a day and only take a break during lunch for a protein fruit drink and either a Fibermix sandwich or a VeggieTray salad. The same meal every day. Healthy. Convenient. Fast.
    Based on grades, it appears school comes naturally to me. I don’t even check my scores anymore at the end of the term, but Dad prints them out and calls me into his office to show me the straight As. I used to assume these grades were what everyone achieved, until I got older and took advanced computer classes and realized I’m in the top 97 percentile of my peers. The top 10 percent of DS students are offered
the most competitive internships and highest college-placement classes. The top 5 percent are usually scouted by the major digital universities. I guess being in the top 3 percent is especially unusual but it really doesn’t faze me. My dad is pleased to define me with an arbitrary letter based on statistical averages, but I think labeling someone’s intelligence with a letter grade isn’t a sign of their ability. Earning an A in digital school is more than being smart. It means being obedient. Doing what you’re told. Selling out to the system. I show up to class and follow the leader. I earn an A for regurgitating other people’s thoughts, not by forming my own.
    When I’m not taking classes, I spend my free time on social sites with all my contacts. My favorite site used to be DS4Dropouts, made up of teenage kids sick of living their lives behind their computer screens. I made most of my contacts through that site, but after my Rebellion, my dad blocked those sites and friends from my computer. But being compliant doesn’t suit me for very long – it’s like an outfit that I grow out of so fast, I never feel comfortable living inside of it.
    Justin’s helping me understand why I rebelled against DS when I was younger. It’s limiting people. We’ll never realize our potential if we always live inside the boundaries of what we fear. Teaching society to be afraid and stay tucked safely behind their locked doors is not the answer to human problems. It only conceals the problem, like a bandage. It doesn’t fix it. Giving the problem open air and room to breathe, to mix with other elements, is what helps it heal.
    Justin is also reminding me life shouldn’t be a law that a few people impose down on you, it should be what people collectively decide is best and grow from there. Digital school should be a choice, not a mandate. We should have alternatives: real schools, digital schools, private schools, small schools, public schools, home schools, alternative schools, schools in airplanes, schools on the sea, I don’t care.
    I’ll never go to the extremes I went to when I was fifteen to change the system. It almost destroyed my family, and I will never willingly
cause that pain again. But I know there are quiet ways to rebel. There are tiny seeds to plant. Even small voices can ripple change along.
    My father’s ideas are becoming my gauge for what not to do. How not to live. What he believes, I suspect. Whatever rule he applies, I quietly write on the top of my list to fight. That is our relationship. Ironically, he inspires me more than anyone because he shows me what I don’t want and sometimes that’s the only way to discover the things you do want.
    I have more online contacts