“Not I, nor anyone else can travel that road for you.

You must travel it by yourself.

It is not far. It is within reach.

Perhaps you have been on it since you were born, and did not know.

Perhaps it is everywhere—on water and land.”

—Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book exists thanks to Dan Harmon and Jan Hughes at Zest Books, and the advisory teen peer group that supported and cheered its development all along the way. I would not have had the stamina to plow through the reams of research involved with this kind of project if it had not been for them, and for the many other teens (and their parents and teachers) who really, really wanted this book and talked to me about why it was so necessary.

I also want to thank Kate Coon, Holly Bull, Aiden Rooney, Doug Drew, Penelope Trunk, and John C. McCain for contributing their insights culled from years and years of guiding young people through this bewildering transition. To Andrew Thompson for his help with some of the research (and his own post-graduate outlook). Additional bows of gratitude to all of you teachers, students, and parents who shared your personal stories of indecision with me. May you embrace the future with gusto!

Auto finally, thanks to my parents, who lived through the roller-coaster of my high school years and still paid for my college education. And to my own teens, Graham and Wyeth, who put up with their mom being away for long stretches to write. And to Tom, for traveling the adult universe thus far with me.