The world is a different place than it was several hundred years ago. At least that's what I read in school. After the economic and agricultural disasters of the twenty-second century, people migrated in droves to city centers. Now almost ninety-five percent of the world's population lives in large cities. This has caused high-rise apartment towers to become the norm and for people to live and work in virtual spaces.

There are still jobs that require physical labor and actual in-person attendance, but they are less common than they were two or three hundred years ago.

Schools have also moved to a mostly online curriculum. The only on-campus time is for advanced classes that require actual experimentation. When I was at Cal, I only visited the campus once, and that was to meet a friend for coffee. Computer sciences programs have no use for physical space other than server farms, but those take up a lot less room than they once did. My first class on the history of computer sciences showed me that there used to be massive buildings filled with server racks.

One day I'll be able to go back to school full time and complete my degree and get a real job, but until then, I'm just happy to have what I have. It isn't like I had a lot of choices when my mother got sick. With dad out of the picture, I needed to step up.

Unfortunately, one area where the world has not advanced is social services. Politicians and special interest groups still rule the world and make it nearly impossible for you to survive if you can't hold down a full-time job.

When mom got sick, I had to drop to one class a semester, and luckily uncle Philip could hook me up with a job. Now I work at a corporate grow facility outside Napa fixing whatever needs to be fixed. My actual title is Grow House Production Assistant. It means I'm supposed to assist the Grow House Production Manager, Uncle Philip, in the facility's daily operations. In reality, it means I am a jack of all trades mechanic or engineer. Whatever I need to be to make sure the woefully outdated equipment keeps pumping water and plant feed to the right places. I need to make sure the harvesting machines don't kill the plants when it harvests, and the planting machines work. It's a tough job, but it pays enough and has decent benefits like insurance for me and my mom.

It only takes me twenty minutes to get to work from downtown Berkeley on the rapid, so that isn't too bad. I do smell like fertilizer and dirt a lot of the time, but my friend Juno tells me it's not that bad.

One good thing about people working virtually is companies have invented new devices and technologies. The VR technology used for work makes VR gaming possible. If there's a genre of game you enjoy, there's a complete and immersive world where you can play it. All you need to do is log into the Nexus and find the right world. Oh, and pay the fees to enter.

In life, nothing is free, and VR is no exception to that rule. Even VR gear isn't free for people outside of primary education. A proper VR rig will set you back about ten thousand dollars, but you can get by with one that runs about four thousand. About a week's pay for most people or about half a month's rent. I was lucky enough to get a top of the line rig as a part of my scholarship when I entered college, and as long as I can keep up with one class a semester, I can keep it.

Anyway, if you like racing games, you can jump behind the wheel of a mag-lev supercar and race. If you like to fight, like my friend Sam, you can jump into the arena and fight. I've always been partial to the MMORPG games where there's magic, and you have to grind out an existence through building your skills and being smart. But if that isn't your thing, I'm sure there's a game out there for you.

In fact, there's a new game coming out soon that I've really wanted to get. It's supposed to be the most advanced and immersive MMORPG ever. Unfortunately, it's being released in limited access to only one-hundred thousand people for the first six months. I guess to test it and to get feedback for a wider release. From what I've seen, it's incredible. I can't wait until the testing round is finished to get in and start building a character.