Today is my birthday. I am 10 years old. Yet I have to spend it at the temple with a priest. Even more strange, I have to be there the whole day, from Midnight to the following day. All I have been told is that it is tradition, a rite of passage from my classes to then apprenticing for five years. If you don’t get an apprenticeship, you end up in the youth camps for five years until you are an adult and will then be given a choice of unskilled labour or the army. Fortunately for me, my father has said that I can apprentice to him. He is a shop merchant in town. Not quite what I want to do, but better than the camps.
It is approaching the hour of my birth according to records and the priest is watching me attentively. I was mostly allowed to do what I wanted today, which has mostly been reading. The priest signals to me and tells me it is time for the Statement. This Statement is apparently given to every child to repeat at this hour of their 10th birthday.
“In the name of the current King, Gregory in the Kingdom of Maresk 1400 FE you are no longer a child. While not yet a man, today marks the day that you will begin to take your steps towards being one. Is there an apprenticeship waiting for you, or will you be heading for the youth camps?”
“I have an apprentice with my father, sir, He is a shop merchant in town.”
“Ah, commendable. I imagine that explains all the reading you have done today. A sharp mind is needed for that job. Good, good. Now I need you to repeat some words for me. ‘Show Status Screen to Priest Donald.’” I dutifully repeat these words back to the priest. Nothing happens. The Priest relaxes and sits back. “Very good. Now all I need you to do is repeat the same statement at one minute past midnight and you will be able to go back to your family. If you wish to sleep, feel free.” I thanked the priest and move off to one of the camp beds provided in the room. It's just me and the priest here, but sometimes there is a crowd of people who have to do this. Fortunately, I have not had to put up with anyone else today. I get comfortable and go to sleep.
Suddenly I am woken by the Bells of the Temple. While not so loud as to wake the residents of the town, they are loud enough to wake the residents of the temple. I go to the priest and dutifully repeat the Statement. “Everything is as it should be. Go with God, my son, and enjoy your apprenticeship.”
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I am met by my father outside the temple. We walk the way home where my mother is waiting along with my siblings. I am the youngest of five and was in fact a very big surprise to my mother and father as they had thought themselves too old for any more. The next oldest of my siblings had left for their apprenticeship the year I was born. However, I have always had a good relationship with my siblings, even with the ones I hardly ever see due to the distance that they live. They wrote to me frequently after I learned to read and write, and I would write back to them. The eldest two had children and the middle sibling was pregnant with her first.
I make it back to the house, where the birthday celebrations kick off. There are presents, there is food and there is laughter. The sun is just beginning to rise when we all retire to bed.
I wake up near the end of the day. All of my siblings have left, having to get back to where they live. It saddens me, but I resolve to visit them once my apprenticeship finishes. I go downstairs and my father greets me.
“Hello Joshua. Get some food down you and we will go to the camping spot.” Excitement rushes through me. How could I have forgotten the family tradition? As our bodies are out of sync due to having to attend Temple, followed by a party, we travel to a camping spot, where we meditate and reflect until the sun rises, a family tradition will be enacted, and then we swim the lake and then walk back to town.
We leave the house, we travel the back roads to the woods and enter until we come to the small lake. We drop the packs we are carrying and then meditate. This is something that all my family have learnt, as my father claims that it helps with our disposition, which is needed as a merchant.
Me, my mother and father sit in a circle facing each other and meditate. As we feel the sun rise, my father says to me, “the Statement that you were asked to say at the temple. Say it, but instead of the priest's name, substitute mine and your mother’s name.” I do so and my jaw drops as suddenly in between us appears a blue box. “Well, Joshua, it appears you have a choice to make.”
A choice was made that day. And it changed my life forever. This is the story of that choice and what arose from it.