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    In a technologically evolving world, one young woman gets lost in the mix.
Feeling disillusioned and isolated despite her daily human contact,
we track her slow fall into the abyss of Technology Land
and how it nearly swallows her whole.

• Can she overcome her fears?
• Will she ever learn what happened to her trusty sidekick, Kitty the dog?
• Would a secret weapon help?

To learn the answers to these and other crazy questions,
Meet...

 The Quintessential Q!

   OK, that’s me! Before we get started, I want to give a shout out to my girls. Hey Mamasita! Chicarita! Bimbassa!

   You may wonder what makes my column different from the myriad already in print. Well, groovy drawing aside, this space
is reserved for the cool kids, the younger generation – teens who actually do read the paper, adults just starting their careers and those facing increasing pressure to grab a mate or “just settle down and have some kids.”

   In some ways, it’s an answer to those metro papers launching new publications to tap the market. You know, “Hook ‘em while they’re young, and you’ve got a customer for life.” Um thanks, Drug Dealers of America. And people wonder why some of Generation XYZ smoke a bowl, drop some X or do a lot of other stuff I’ve never tried just to survive in the Land of the Free, Home of the Rat Race.
(Insert that rolling eyes smiley here.)

   In this case, the idea’s not such a bad one, but the execution may be a little off. The corporate big wigs are chasing more advertising dollars and catering to us – content free of charge that is supposedly more edgy than anything we’ll find in the daily paper. Other metros have tried this before, and they were forced either to close the “alternative” publication or start charging for it.

   The problem with starting a new publication aimed just at young adults is that it assumes we either don’t need or don’t want news the traditional dailies are offering. Some people don’t read the news – and probably for the same reason many teens don’t do their homework. It sounds boring. And nobody wants to be boring.

   Guess what? Parts of life are boring. I just finished up two and a half years of boring, writing about an industry where the people were so dull I wanted to check them for a pulse. But the job paid the bills and allowed me to live where I wanted.

   What you’ll find in the newspaper is a better mix of what real life is like – equal parts drab and desirous, silly and serious, sexy and sad. It’s all in there. And if it’s not, some people aren’t doing their jobs.

   So in this column, I’ll dish about being young, single and working in a world built for and around families – landing (and keeping) your first job, dating, sex, losing a job, starting over, career switches, drugs, and controversies going on across America. In short, I want to help you make the transition from high school to college, college to work, single to couple (if that’s what you want) – all without losing your head much. You know – how to get all those things our parents don’t always know how to help us achieve, but want for us from the minute the doctor cuts the cord and we are… Disconnected!

• Rae Ann Rockhill was a displaced Midwesterner writing in the middle of the San Francisco Bay. Now she's displaced in the Midwest.