But there was no way to practice for the hazards beyond the ceremony.

Kristen, a foster child since age 13, climbed the stage at graduation as a ward of the state. She stepped off an emancipated woman, free from the government that raised her.

At 18, she is considered grown, the state's duty to her done. A shy, observant young woman whom social workers took from an abusive home five years ago, Kristen must fend for herself now.

"It's real out here," Kristen said. "I didn't feel ready. I don't feel ready."

Kristen's classmates went home to eat cake with proud parents.

Not a single blood relative watched Kristen pass this milestone. A foster mother paid to shelter Kristen through high school and a former mentor took their place, clapping as "Kristen McClarin" echoed through N.C. State's cavernous Reynolds Coliseum.

Kristen has $70 to her name. She has no health insurance. Last week, she hunted for her first job. She's scared but laughs nervously and tells herself this is how life goes for children like her.

"I guess I just have to jump into it," she said.

Wake County Human Services tried to help her make the leap. Social workers gave Kristen a suitcase, an iron, a set of towels and a laundry basket. They slipped $100 in a card. County leaders know it's meager help.

"You are saying congratulations and patting them on the back and handing them a laundry basket full of items and pointing them toward the door," said Kenn Gardner, a Wake County commissioner who works privately to raise money for scholarships for foster children.

This past year, more than 600 North Carolina children launched the same lonely, frightening journey into independence. They do it without permanent families, without a parent to call when they get behind on a power bill or need somewhere to go for Christmas dinner.

Judges long ago declared their parents unfit to raise them. Adoption never panned out. They arrive at the end of childhood alone.

Nationally, more children than ever are aging out of foster care. The number of emancipated youth -- the term used to describe foster children who age out of government care -- rose more than 40 percent from 1998 to 2005. Over the past year in North Carolina, the number jumped more than 14 percent.

Most former foster children fare badly. They're more likely to end up living on the streets or having babies before they're ready. A quarter end up in jail within two years of leaving foster care, one study found.

Another study found less than 3 percent attained degrees by age 25. That's compared with about a quarter of young adults who didn't come of age in foster homes.

Kristen tries not to think about the odds against her. She'd rather climb into bed and lose herself in one of her teen romance novels, where happy endings are guaranteed.

Growing up fast

At first glance, Kristen is a typical young woman. She's too self-conscious to wear the eyeglasses a doctor prescribed. She lets a curse word slip now and again. A round-faced girl who stands just over 5 feet, she has a rich, smooth complexion and hair she tries to straighten on her own. She can't find the confidence to tell a boy she likes him.

But Kristen has grown up fast, mastering lessons most people hope they never learn. At 13, she realized sometimes moms are too sick to love their children the way they need to be loved. She understood that men can make babies they don't want, then disappear. Kristen said she figured out God doesn't always mend a broken heart just because you plead night after night.

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