Drew is not the typical teenager. As he prepares for his high school graduation, he is forced to remember that the person who supported him the most will not be in attendance that day, his mother. She encouraged him to get as much education as he possibly could so that every door he wanted to be able to open would be a door that is available for him. But unfortunately, no one investigated the teenager who grew up constantly being punished in timeout. Sometimes it was what he said that got him in trouble and other times it was his actions, nevertheless he was always in some type of trouble. When he shares the stories of his childhood, we begin to understand that being in timeout for him was an opportunity for him to get all of the attention that he didn't get at home. Trying his best to not listen to his mother and father fought constantly his mother created a safe haven that she too called timeout, it required him to hide in a closet with his Walkman on playing loud music in hopes that she could shield him from what was on the other side of the door. It is not until his fifth-grade year when he is assigned the task of speaking to his future self that he is able to put words on paper to make sure that when he reads it many years later, he will remember how much his mother loved him and how treacherous his childhood was.

A different coming of age story that reminds us how difficult it is to be a child that turns into a teenager who has known more hidden trauma than unconditional love.