“Come be one of the first engineers of EMBRS the company. I’ll hire more experienced engineers too, of course. But you’ve got such potential and you already know the problem space so well. And you have a personal connection to it. I’d pay you a full-time salary with benefits and all of that. Equity, too, and as an early engineer, that could be a huge amount of money down the line. You can continue working remotely and be with your family, of course.”

“So I would drop out of school?” I asked, the idea nearly unfathomable.

“I know you are a good student. But this is another option. You know those stories about college kids dropping out of school and becoming billionaires before they’re even thirty? This might be one of those opportunities.”

I could not think of anything to say.

“Think about it,” he said gently. “You can always return to school. But I don’t know where EMBRS as a product or a company will be by the time you graduate. And this way you won’t have to pay college tuition. You’d just be making money. Anyway, I don’t mean to pressure you. Take some time.”

I’ve been seriously considering it. It’s the logical decision, right? To ease the burden on my family—no more tuition fees, and I can stay working from home as grandmother’s illness progresses, and potentially make a lot of money. The only downside would be not finishing college, though a lot of computer science students drop out these days, and they are still super successful. I never pictured myself as that kind of person—I’ve always stuck with the road map. But I haven’t been on any road for a while now.

At least that was what I was thinking before I told Louise about it. I even sent her Prof. Logan’s pitch.

so you wouldnt go back to school?

I guess not

but dont you like school?

I did. but this way I can stay with my grandparents and help them out more

I mean, I can’t say much since im still in college too. but you know how everyone says its the best time of their life? would you want to give that up?

Suddenly, I was annoyed.

in an ideal world, no. but not all of us are so fortunate to be able to spend four years away from family

I thought she would apologize. She was usually so good about realizing her mistakes and correcting them, always ensuring she wasn’t hurting anyone. Instead, she replied:

okay, but working on EMBRS? is that really what you want to do?

The angle surprised me.

why wouldn’t I?

because its kind of a creepy application, dont you think?

That hurt more than anything else she had said. She followed up.