Jacob is a moderately gifted young man in a sea of extraordinary people. Born and raised in Middle America, he was near the top of his class up through high school, neck and neck with the valedictorian. The proverbial big fish in a small pond. When he left his hometown for a scholarship at a prestigious engineering institution, however, he found himself quickly lost in the mix.

He kept his head above water, graduating in the middle of the pack. He even managed to do it a semester early, though he lost his scholarship when he bit off more than he could chew early on. Jacob took a tech job in California after that, but it was more of the same. He did good work, but nothing particularly innovative or earth-shattering. His side projects laying the groundwork for a startup were beat to the punch or stalled out entirely.

That's not to say he was unhappy. He was happy with the day-to-day routine, he had good friends, a tight-knit family back home, he'd even joined a touch football league the other day. It just felt like he was spinning his wheels, trying to get ahead like everyone else, when maybe he should just accept things as they were

And then, the world collapsed. He was just outside, grabbing an early lunch when it happened, on the phone with his parents.