I come from a place I believed was normal for the first twenty-one years of my life. On a man’s twenty-first birthday, he is allowed to make the decision of whether or not he wishes to leave his tribe and venture out beyond the boundaries. Three years have passed since I was granted my one choice. In my heart I absolutely believe I chose right. I got out; I left.
Being a male in my tribe requires proper hunting, shelter, and fire building skills. Self defense was optional, but my mother never approved. I did however take secret lessons behind her back, anyway. From the moment I knew I was trapped within a sanctioned boundary, and would be for the rest of my life based on one choice, I knew I would go the other way. I had to learn self defense and go to all the risky practices my mother never wanted me to attend.
On the dawn of each New Year, all male tribe members who passed their twenty-first birthday that year gather at the gates. The entire tribe comes as well to watch the ceremony. It’s a very significant event every year. Three years ago when I threw my rock over the gates to signify my choice of leave, the picture of my mother’s broken heart etched on her will face will remain in my memory forever.
Only two of the forty-eight people chose out that year. It was me and this other guy who never spoke to anybody but one other person. That other person he’d talk to turned twenty one three years prior to our choosing day, and also chose to leave. So not a single person knew the guy I was about to venture out with, especially not me. I was absolutely on my own.
When the ceremony ended and everyone was full and drank plenty of fun drink, it was time to open the gates. The quiet guy, whose name I don’t know, literally ran off. He skirted in the left direction and just kept going, so naturally, I chose right. Meandering out past the gates had the same scenery as inside the tribe walls; broken concrete and wood lay everywhere. It was all ruins from the age before. 
Past the ruins, earth began to take over. Plants and small trees sprouted among vast, expansive grasslands. It completely took my breath away. Hunting was easy as well, thanks to all my childhood training. Huge games roam freely almost everywhere. I've traveled far across what used to be a bunch of gathered territories called States. I’m glad they’re gone as well.
Out here beyond the only life I've ever known, I have found people who live freely, not in the way the tribe does. These people don’t eat their fresh dead. They don’t murder sick children because there aren't enough elder dead. The way women are treated in the tribe; I have no words. It’s no wonder those who make the choice to leave are never to come back again.
The leaders don’t believe that the people who choose out will survive. What they don’t know is that hundreds of them have survived, I've met them. We need to stop the leaders from keeping the tribe going on the way it has for years. The evil needs to stop. And it’s my responsibility to lead the survivors.