Dear millennium bug,
Is this the end? First the dinosaurs, then the Dodo Bird.
It’s strange and honestly quirky that ur common interest is “fascination about the apocalypse.” Our parents’ generation thought that the year 2000 was the year all humankind was going to end. As the clock struck 00:00, the world came to a halt, breaths, and hands were held, and faced the uncertainty of the world ending.
Gen Z kids, like you and I, were first introduced to the end of the world in 2012 when some guy in Hollywood made a movie about a Mayan prophecy that predicted it would end that year. I remember the world ending, I binge-ate Ritz with a jar of peanut butter and didn’t do my homework because I genuinely thought I would have the chance to hand them in. My parents didn’t even bother to correct me because looking back, they were nervously thinking “we dodged Y2K and now the world is coming to an end.” And now, less than a decade later, kids who weren’t even alive in 2012 find their worlds ending with a COVID pandemic.
“All that crap about the world coming to an end never really happens, have you ever thought about what the real ending would look like? You furrowed your brow while putting a Redvine into your mouth. “I don’t know,” I said as you played with your hair, “Is it even possible to have an apocalypse? Every time the world is supposed to end, you turn out perfectly fine.”
We probably don’t remember any other details about our conversation and now that I’ve decided to define the world ending as people freaked out, I felt nothing and am completely fine. I want to tell you that, even though we parted ways a long time ago, I still think about you and the end of the world more than I wish to admit.
Like the time you danced on the tabletop making a chaotic mess but my eyes were fixed on your dimple on the left side. That night in November when we stargazed, you were focused on the constellations, but I was focused on how the wind gently blew through your hair. The truth is, the world ended the day I met you.
The rest of the world fell into an absolute whirlwind but I felt perfectly fine. Because the first three seconds we looked into each other’s eyes, even as complete strangers, I felt my heart stop. I knew if we had each other we didn’t need the world to keep spinning because my head was already so spun.
The end of the world is not an ending, it is a closure that leads to a more beautiful journey. The world ended the day I fell in love. I still miss you and I miss the world where both you and I exist.
You are my ending.
Sincerely,
1999