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“Though it’s fearful, though it’s deep, though it’s dark, and though you may lose the path, you have to act. You can’t just wish. No, to get your wish, you go into the woods.”

Steven Sondheim said it perfectly: You cannot let your fears hold you back from what you wish, from your dreams.

My wish, my dream, is college. As I enter my final year of high school, I find myself apprehensive of what lies ahead. The thought of living on my own, the huge costs of tuition, and the fear that I might screw it all up hang on my shoulders like the weight of the world. I am not ready to be an adult.

However, what I have learned is that no one is ready to become an adult. After all, if one were ready to become an adult, one would already be one.

In this year’s Onalaska summer musical production of Steven Sondheim’s “Into the Woods,” I play the baker. The baker is a simple man who wishes for a child more than life or riches. When it is revealed to him by the witch that lives next door that a potion made of objects that can be found in the nearby woods can alleviate him of his infertility, he apprehensively makes the decision to journey into the woods to get his wish.

In the end, he and his wife get their wish and receive a child, but that is not the important part. The important part is what happens to him on the journey. When the baker sets out, he is timid and unsure of himself. While he is physically an adult, he is not emotionally or mentally an adult; he is certainly not prepared for what lies ahead. Along the way, he changes to an adult. He grew up and adapted even though when he started he was not ready.

By the end of his journey, he was a father and an adult. He had to make hard decisions about stealing, about sacrificing the few for the many and about what a family really is. He was ready for none of those decisions, yet he made them and not just survived but thrived.

In many ways, the baker’s journey mirrors the one that my peers and I must take. College is a frightening proposition. I will be responsible for my own life, livelihood and future. I feel that many of my peers have similar fears; at least, I hope I am not the only one.

Parents are often too protective of their children as they transition from high school to college. Sometimes that protective blanket can be a trap for kids as they move on in life. If kids get too much help from their parents as they grow up, they will have trouble becoming independent. We must be allowed to make mistakes. None of us are truly prepared to be adults, but that is OK. We will survive and grow. However, we must first be allowed to grow.

I am not prepared for everything that is coming my way, but, like the baker, I will adapt to the given situation and do my best to do what is right. I will make mistakes along the way, but I have to take the journey. I am not an adult, but along the path I will become one, without even knowing it.

Jake Hollnagel is a senior at Onalaska High School.