Reasons to get through the next six months, as a service

Let me just get one thing out of the way: for as long as I can remember, I’ve thought about death. And before you pick up the phone—relax—I’ve talked to therapists about it before, and it’s nothing urgent or much to worry about and I do it even when I’m quite happy (like I am these days). It’s just how I’m wired. I devote 1% of my brain power thinking about what life would be like after I’m gone, but in a far-off, abstract kind of way. From time to time I feel lower than usual and think about it more, and that’s usually when I talk to someone about it.

When I was at my lowest low, it was sometime in Fall of 2013 and I found a random reddit thread by a guy that sounded seriously suicidal, but he wanted to stick it out just a few more months so he could play some upcoming games and see a few big movies recently announced, which he listed. I remember stumbling on this from Twitter and feeling sad for the guy, and people seemed to be mocking him because he was sticking around for pop culture reasons. I remember the long list and near the end of it was Guardians of the Galaxy, coming out the following Summer. He was probably a comics nerd and I’m a big Chris Pratt fan, so I kind of virtually bonded with this stranger over the internet with his strange list. I remember agreeing with many of his choices, telling myself “dang, no matter how bad things get, I do want to see what the new Star Wars ends up being like. And I do want to play that game too. And yeah, I really want to see the Guardians on the big screen too.”

For some reason this random post on reddit stuck with me and I thought about it often for the next year, especially when I was stressed or feeling down in the dumps. I kept thinking of this list, all the way until I saw Guardians of the Galaxy in a theater, enjoyed the hell out of it, and decided that guy’s list ultimately delivered and kept me going that whole time.

Laura Olin’s list of reasons to live through the election makes me not only want to get through this hellish election, but it makes me excited about 2017. There are so many highlights in there that I know I’m going to reload it often throughout the next year. Sure some of it is silly and it’s mostly pop culture things, but almost everything in that list is going to put a smile on my face, and I’m already eager to see them all.

It reminded me of that reddit user’s list and how that got me through a deep dark cycle that lasted months. Then I realized: I wish there was always a list of all the great stuff coming out in the next 6–12 months, forever. It’s like a big pile of positive feelings that’s always just barely out of reach, but gets delivered slowly to you as time passes.

In other words, I’m saying Laura’s list is fantastic, and I never want it to end.