(hello tysm so much for readin'. we recently hit 100 votes and 700 reads, which is intensely amazing to me, so thank you a bunch for all support and bless ur hearts :D)
(updates will be rocky with my schedule getting busy at this time, so it'll be an update like every 1.5 weeks😅) (but here's a rly long one to make up for that)
atychiphobia (n.)
a·tych·i·pho·bia
The extreme fear of failure.
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Every single time I watch any end-of-the-world movie, I—like many other thoughtful Americans—like to imagine what I would do in the same situation.
The truth of the matter is 'I don't know'. Because I, and you, don't, as the imagination has just about everything except one important ingredient: reality.
There are about a thousand and one end-of-the-world movies or shows on the planet. Anywhere from zombies to alien invasions to mysterious plagues to incoming comets to giant floods or fires or simply the slow manmade destruction of the earth. You had Independence Day, Dawn of the Dead, Dante's Peak, War of the Worlds, or World War Z, Geostorm, The Day After Tomorrow, or 28 Days Later, Contagion, Resident Evil, Train to Busan, or Planet of the Apes, Cloverfield, 2012, Armageddon, or even Wall-E, which deserves more credit.
Whichever movie you watched, of any quality, it always asked the same question: when shit goes down, what do you do?
Maybe you'll be smart, grab a gang together, get supplies, stay in a shelter. Maybe you'll go berserk, get a hundred guns, kill every person in your path and rob every bank within a six mile radius. Maybe you'll be kind, help those in need, try to find a way to fix the destruction that's plagued your world. Maybe you'll just be scared.
The first end-of-times movie I watched was the ever infamous, and definitely horrible, World War Z, with jawline extraordinaire Brad Pitt. I was eleven at the time, and therefore oblivious to what awaited me, as well as still questioning the odd allure I had to boys with nice jawlines, so when one of my old friends asked his father if we could watch it in the grown-up leather chairs of his living room, I readily agreed.
"I don't think you want to watch this, guys," his father said. "It's too scary for young kids."
My friend—Ethan Kim, smart young man, quite the soccer player, went to a top tier private school because regular high school and middle school was just not good enough for him—just stared at his father.
"Please?" he asked. "It doesn't even look that scary! And Angel wants to watch it, too, right?"
I nodded despite the churn in my stomach. "We'll be okay, Mr. Kim."
He had pursed his lips at us, then said, "All right, fine. But don't come running to me when you have nightmares tonight."
We dismissed that and clicked play.
Now, of all the zombie movies in the world, I can now say World War Z is not exactly a top-ranking, artistically brilliant zombie film. It's definitely more fit for a bad date night than for an attentive watch, but being eleven and having had no experience with such films, I was not as nonchalant.
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Suicide Buddies
Teen Fiction"My mother once told me there are three, and only three, truly defining moments in your life. One: When you don't know. Two: When you realize you don't know. Three: When you know. This is about the third one." --- Angel Young is going to die. Or at...
