The Family Project: a college assignment that sounded harmless on the syllabus and now feels like a loaded question. You and whoever you pick get paired up, handed a plastic bin full of folded slips, and told to “build a life” based on what you draw: marriage status, kids (if any), and a tax bracket that decides what kind of stability you’re allowed to pretend you have. Then you’re graded on how you handle it all, like love and rent and sleep deprivation fit neatly into a rubric.