Something was wrong with the entire world... but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.

As a child, you don't really think about the world around you that much. You're still trying to wrap your head around the latest bills and retain that in your long-term memory. Or at least I was. But it wasn't until I was a bit older when I noticed something was odd. The world wasn't quite right, and it seemed like nobody else understood what I meant. I have many examples that I've collected, and I hope you'll listen to them and see if you can help me identify it. When I was about six years old, I was in the backseat of my parents' car. My dad was driving my mom and me to the park for a picnic. As we were driving, I noticed my mom looking in the rear view mirror, repeatedly. I asked her what she was looking at. She said, "You know what? I'm not sure. It's been bothering me for the past few miles, but I don't see anything there." I looked at my dad and asked him, "What was it?" He said, "I didn't see anything." I asked, "When did you notice it?" She said, "It started when we turned onto the interstate ramp." I thought that was really odd, but we moved on and forgot about it. n 2002, I was in second grade. We were doing a math assignment. One of the boys in my class, a Mexican kid named Carlos, said, "I'm a bit upset. My dad was supposed to pick me up from school on Friday, but I haven't seen him since Tuesday. His car is still in the driveway, but he's nowhere inside the house." One of the teachers said, "Well, maybe he didn't tell you he was leaving, but he did." Carlos said, "No, he told me he was going to pick me up on Friday." We moved on. In 2009, I was living in a small town in Arkansas. I was about 13 years old. I worked in a grocery store where I bagged groceries and put them in customers' cars for them. One of the baggers I worked with was a college-aged guy named Mike. He was a very friendly guy. One day, I was pushing my cart of groceries out to a customer's car when I noticed something odd. I heard Mike talking to a customer about how he had just moved to the city from "down south". I was a little confused because I knew him pretty well, so I chimed in and said, "Oh, where down south?" He said, "You know, by the ocean." I was confused. I said, "Arkansas is landlocked. We have lakes, but no ocean." He said, "Maybe you're talking about the Gulf?" I said, "But that's all the way on the other side of the country." He said, "No, it's just over there." And he pointed off into the distance. I was confused, so I just shrugged it off. And that was that. I would also like to add that whenever I asked Mike about it later, he had no idea what I was talking about. In 2010, I was in 8th grade. I was about 14 and I had just started to learn to drive. My dad was my instructor. I was driving very slowly down the street, practicing how to stop at a stop sign. As I was approaching the sign, my dad said, "Be careful because there may be a car coming down the street." I said, "I see it." Because that's just what you do. But I didn't actually see it. I was paying very close attention to the stop sign, and I didn't actually see a car. I said, "I see it," simply because it was an instinctual response. And as I walked through the intersection, I noticed there was no car. I said, "There wasn't a car." My dad said, "Yes, there was." I said, "No, there wasn't." He said, "Yes, there was. I saw it." In 2014, I was in college, living in an apartment on campus. I was walking down the hallway towards my apartment when I saw a "Missing Person" poster. As I got closer, I noticed it was for a girl that I had never seen before. I looked down at it and saw that she had been missing for just over a week. I was a bit concerned because I had never seen her on campus before, but I figured she was probably a freshman or something. So I moved on. The next morning when I was walking to class, I noticed the poster was still there. I saw a campus police officer standing at the elevator, so I went up to him and said, "Officer, I saw a 'Missing Person' poster yesterday. Do you have any idea where she is?" He said, "Well, her car is still in the parking lot of her dorm, but she hasn't been seen since I think last Sunday." I said, "That's so weird. I've never seen her on campus." He said, "Yeah, me neither." I said, "I'm glad they're doing something about it, but it seems a bit unnecessary to hang up a poster for a girl that nobody knows." The police officer looked at me strangely and said, "What poster?" I said, "The one on the bulletin board over there." He said, "I don't see anything." So I pointed to the spot where the poster was hanging. When I pointed, I noticed that the poster was still there. I was confused, so I asked him, "You don't see that?" He said, "No." I said, "Well, you're a campus police officer. Maybe you should go look into it." He said, "I don't see anything." I was confused, so I just moved on. Later that day, as I was walking back to my apartment, I saw the poster was still up. I don't know if she was ever found, but I never saw her around campus. I hope she's okay. In 2015, I was on a road trip with my mom and dad. We were driving across the county to visit Yellowstone National Park. We were driving through Utah when my dad suddenly said, "Oh, be careful because there might be some falling rocks on the road." I said, "I don't see anything." He said, "I saw some falling off the cliff just now." So I looked up at the cliff alongside the road and I didn't see anything. And as we were driving past, a huge boulder came tumbling down from the cliff. But it "fell" horizontally across the road right in front of us. It didn't actually fall off the cliff and roll down the hill. I said, "Wow, I'm glad we're okay." My mom said, "We're very lucky." And that was that. In 2019, I was working in a law firm as a janitor. I swept and mopped the floors and emptied the trash cans. One day, as I was emptying the trash cans, I was looking out the window at the city and I noticed planes flying overhead. But instead of flying across the sky, they were flying straight up. One plane would fly straight up until it just disappeared. Then, right behind it, another plane would fly straight up until it disappeared. I was a bit confused, so I asked one of my coworkers, "Why are all the planes in the sky flying straight up?" He said, "What?" I said, "All the planes." He said, "What do you mean?" I pointed and said, "There. There. There. They're all flying straight up into the atmosphere." He said, "No, they're not." I said, "Yes, they are." He said, "Planes do not fly straight up." I said, "Well, they are right now." He said, "No, they're not." So I just moved on. But as I was walking to the supply closet to grab some more trash bags, I noticed the planes still flying straight up into the sky. And as I was walking past the windows, I noticed it again. So I asked another one of my coworkers, "Why are the planes in the sky flying straight up into the atmosphere?" He said, "The planes are flying straight across the sky." I said, "No, they're not." He said, "What do you mean?" I pointed and said, "There, there, there, there, there, there." He said, "Yes, they're flying straight across the sky." I said, "No, they're not. They're all flying straight up." He said, "No, they're not." So I just left it at that. But that evening, as I was walking home, I noticed all the planes in the sky were still flying straight up. I don't know why it bothers me so much. But something is wrong with the universe. I don't know what it is, but it's just... off. But everybody says I'm crazy. I don't know what to do.

Something was wrong with the entire world... but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.

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