Humor Me

Prologue

One year earlier:

"A new law has just been passed that hunters in Alaska can now shoot hibernating bears and use aircraft to track their targets, this came after the Trump administration repealed Obama-era..."

"One of the worst chemical bombings in recorded history has turned a northern rebel-held city into a toxic wasteland on Tuesday..."

"Around 500 children have been abducted in the last 3 months around Washington D.C., authorities have yet to release a statement..."

"We will bring back clean coal!!!" *applause* "We will give jobs back to miners..."

"There is no such thing as global warming. That was something made up by China! ..."

"The blue whale has now been listed as... extinct. Along with the Siberian tiger, the African elephant, and the silver back gorilla. I'm sure we can all agree that at this moment the least we can do is hold a moment of silence for the creatures that were victimized by our greedy mistakes..."

I turn off the tv and toss the remote on the coffee table as I lean back on the couch. I place both hands on each side of my head and start to massage my temples. Just breathe, I tell myself. Breathe.

The world is going to shit and here I am trying to mop it up with a square of toilet paper.

FUCK!!! I'm not sure if I just thought it in my head or actually yelled it out but I definitely felt it. I start to feel a numbness in my chest. 9 years, I whisper to myself. And for what, I think. 9 years I spent advocating for clean energy. 9 years I spent trying to educate people on how easy it is to help the environment. 9 years I spent forming coalitions and volunteering and submitting petitions and organizing protests. You can rally thousands for a good cause and all it takes is one man to undo it all. Typical, I sneer to myself.

It just doesn't make sense. It's the 21st century. We have new technological advancements that make the moon landing look like a high school science project but sustainable energy is a pipe dream. Everyone can document every second of their life but we seem blinder than ever.

The world is dying but at least it's going out with a snapchat filter that's on point.

I don't want to see the world die before my eyes

I don't want to be around when it does

I get up from the couch and head to the bathroom, the numbness in my chest starting to spread through my body.

I open the medicine cabinet and look at the assortment of plastic bottles sitting in an uneven row. I grab the handful of plastic bottles and set them on the sink. I grab one and open the cap and spill the contents into the toilet.

With every pill that falls into the toilet bowl, every empty plastic bottle that I throw into the trash, a part of me disappears until there is no trace of me left. behind any specks of who I was.