Reality U is a life simulation program that sophomore students participate in every year.

The program is meant to simulate what life will be like for the students at the age of 26. Students choose a career or profession they hope their 26 year old self would have and whether they would like to be single, married, divorced or have kids. When the day of Reality U came along, they were randomly matched up with a person in their grade that also wanted to be married or given a “child” if they wanted to have kids.

This simulation was set up in the gym mezzanine and students participated in it during their history class. Students visited different tables that represented different aspects of adult life like buying or renting a living space, buying a form of transportation, buying work attire that was associated with their profession and buying utilities for their living space.

The simulation also gave them a “salary” that was based on the career path they chose, with that salary they had to buy certain necessities and pay certain bills for a month without overspending their budget. “I thought it was a cool experience but it didn’t have a wide variety of careers to chose from so to me it wasn’t as accurate or as fun as it could have been,” Timothy Christmore said.