From the wheat fields of Kansas to surfing the immense waves on the shores of Planet Nuptia, the author takes readers on a journey which may be referred to as the “future meets the past.” In “Earth Boy” a child is held captive on Europa and in the ”Longevity Gene” a geneticist searches for a gene complex that may hold the key to immortality while stock car drivers race around a track in Alabama and discover something totally unexpected. As the book title suggests, searching for and struggling to acquire independence is the underlying theme of the book’s short stories which concludes with poems about seagulls, crows, ship wrecks, dangerous sharks and young love that makes today seem like yesterday.