Are you going to the Rapture at 7th Street, 18942? I am. I’m bringing my friends too. Every day, for the past year, I’ve felt myself changing gradually, growing deeper as a being and becoming my best self. But at the same time, I’ve felt a growing despair leech into the world. For all this time, I was so confused. Why were we doing all of this to ourselves? Why so much war? What was the point of it all? But I think I get it now. All of that conflict was just an introduction, a necessary happening, like the waves reaching back into the sea right before a tsunami. I don’t know exactly what is going to happen, but I have a good feeling that everything is going to be great. Gather your friends! It’s going to be wonderful.
Sometimes, I think about how it is like in another country. How it was before we were here—which is, in a way, elsewhere on this planet. How it’ll be afterward… I used to be so scared, you know? But I’m not anymore. I think whatever happens, we’re all going to be together in the end, right? No one knows where it stops, nobody knows where it’s going. There’s something nice about that, so gentle… soft and sweet. A calm flow of water into the ravine below. Maybe that’s where we would have gone, anyways. Maybe it’s where, after everything we’ve done, we deserve to go. Maybe this is just our guilt coming back to haunt us. Or, it’s our love for ourselves, coming to rescue us from having to deal with the consequences of our own cruel actions.
I think we’re all going to be okay. Whatever comes, it’s going to be beautiful. I think I’ll miss everything I’ve ever known, though. All the times I had lunch with my friends, all the times I called my family late at night. Heck, even the times I fought with my friends. All of that had a purpose, I think… yes, I know that purpose pales in comparison to this. But I’m going to miss it—well, I will for a bit. I don’t know how anyone would miss it afterward.
I’m going to miss my family—well, my family as a discrete unit. I’m not sure if souls exist! I’m sure they do. Otherwise, none of this would be possible, right? I’m going to miss sunsets. I’m going to miss sunrises, rainbows and animals. I never even got to see a cheetah! When I was a kid, I always wanted to see one in person. I’m happy I got to see manatees.
I never met anyone I could really love, in a romantic sense. I never got to date anyone. It’s funny, because I used to be very religious, you know… until my church from home kicked me out. I’m going to meet God… well, we all are, but I still can’t help but feel unfulfilled. Am I just feeling that if I’m not ahead of everyone, I’m behind them? What a strange philosophy. I think I’m happy to leave it behind.
I’m grateful for the color purple, the many colors of the rainbow, mathematics and music—I can’t imagine what life as an 18-year-old would have been like if I couldn’t sing. I suppose I still have doubts… this is probably the last news piece I’m ever going to write while I’m still on this planet, while any of us are. I can’t believe that I was born in this time period, out of all of them. Maybe it’s a good thing. Maybe this is a good thing. Better a quake than a slow death from the thermostat shooting up, eh? If I die, well, not if, when I die, I’m going to be happy for what I have. I’m so happy now, I’m so grateful for all of it. All the sickness, the pain, the sorrow, all my conditions… and all my friends, my family, every single good thing that ever happened to me. The beneficial and the dubious, the arcane and the natural, the feeling of reading books under the covers of my bed, of watching movies with my sister in the living room, I… I’m glad I got the chance to experience any of that at all. How strange that I lived to this age when so many I grew up with didn’t. I wonder if they’d be happy to know that the people who out-lived them wouldn’t do it for very long.
Goodbye, Earth! Goodbye, waterfalls! Goodbye, animals! Goodbye, sunsets! Goodbye, seas! We failed so many of you. I hope you can find some solace in us leaving, and our passage away our final gift. Good night, and farewell to all of you. We are all going to live happily ever after, yes? But there are no true stories like that, however much we might wish there were. Perhaps it’s best that we all get to live to a decent age and die on the very same day.
Necessary media disclaimer:
If you feel disturbed by this article, I invite you to check out the following pieces of media:
- Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture
- “Childhood’s End”
- “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea” by Neutral Milk Hotel
- “Ride the Cyclone” (yes, that play)
- The Talos Principle (specifically the speech of Alexandra Drennan and some of the info docs)
- “Our Town” (the play)
- Andreth and Finrod’s dialogue (from the Athrabeth Finrod Ah Andreth)
- The scene in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (the book) where Frodo goes to the West
- The scene in “Return of the King” (also the book) where Sam looks up at the sky in Mordor.
- Outer Wilds
- Any museum, aquarium, or canyon, mountain, or historical ruin near you (that last one might be hard to get clearance for, though)