I bought my senior prom ticket Tuesday.

The senior prom. I am going to the final dance — and for one of the rare times in my life will wear a tuxedo — in less than 10 days.

It snuck up on me so fast I cannot believe it. I am not 18 yet. And I am going to Whitworth University in Spokane next year and will move from home.

Two years away from home — yes, I will be able to visit, but that’s two years I am missing. When I come home my sister will be 12 and my brother 17.

Moving out had been a far-off reality. This weekend, however, that all changes. My mother and I are going to Spokane to visit the campus. It’s a completely surreal experience for me — the finalization of becoming an adult, the real test of the pros and cons of becoming a grown up. I will be living on my own for the first time in my life. Of course, I am actually going to be living with my aunt, but I’ll be away from my parents and out of their house, the place I have grown up and felt safe. Now is time to push the boundaries.

As soon as I move, I am going to need to find a job. I am leaving early for that purpose. I will need a job to help pay for school. Not just that, but I will also have to start payments on dreaded student loans within only 60 days of starting school. I have two months to secure a job and a source of income or, well, I am not even sure what exactly will happen, but I am very sure it will be the opposite of good. I will just have to keep my fingers crossed that I may win the Doodle for Google scholarship. Wouldn’t that be nice?

I need to make some serious decisions within the next 13 days. Class registration starts May 1 and I still haven’t the foggiest idea as to what I am going to do. I have to choose my major and what my career will be. It’s just a little bit nerve-racking, but I am sure we have all had to go through that, right? Well, most of us anyway; some of the lucky ones knew right off the bat what they would do as adults. In second grade, while other kids were talking about being mechanics or firefighters, I was still talking about being Jedi Abraham Lincoln when I grew up, so clearly I was behind from the get go!

I am lucky, however, to have supportive parents who told me I can do anything I want and they will support me. If I want to be a business major and go on to be the CEO of a company making millions of dollars annually, that’s fine with them. If I want to go ahead and be an author that can barely afford rent, that is ok with them as well. The only thing they want is my happiness — and, of course, money would not hurt.

It is just weird that until now this was so unreal — and, really, in many ways it still is. In just over 24 hours I will be on the road to Spokane, driving to make this all real and present. No longer will I be able to think of moving and going away and student loans as something far off down the road.

I will no longer be able to think of leaving home as being years or months away, but weeks and days.

— Kyler Lacey is a senior at Kingston High School and a Running Start student at Olympic College. Contact him at kylerlacey@gmail.com.