Davis compares leaving home and coming to Harvard to entering a long hallway filled with thousands of doors to browse. He acknowledges the genuine good that comes from having options — the joy of finding a room more fitting for your authentic self, the comfort that you can always quit or move on. But as he's grown older, he's started seeing the downsides. The more times you walk away from something, the less satisfied you are with any option. What he craves now are those perfect Tuesday nights eating dinner with friends who've been around a long time — people who won't quit you because they found someone better. The hallway metaphor captures the trap: freedom without commitment is just another kind of prison.