Not Fade Away

Irreversible. That was the part that weighed so heavily on me, turning just a leap into a giant leap of faith. On the one hand, my life so far had left much to be desired. Barely going to college and barely squeaking by as a Schmoozetube influencer hadn't offered a lot of fulfillment. Even making money livecasting my gaming skills on "Hunter's Moon" hadn't been the cash cow I'd hoped it would, and I was damn good!

"It's your turn."

My turn to do something. My turn to make a difference. My turn to help the planet, to be first into the new future. Seeing that ad pop up in my MyFace feed had really gotten me going. By getting shrunk down to the size of my current thumb, I would be part of a new movement called "Minimizing".

97% less consumption, 97% less emissions. In the big reveal online, they had introduced the first few hundred people who'd downsized and they had been ecstatic. There was room for everybody and life could be lived at a fraction of the cost! The garbage produced from the first year in Newville barely filled a 30 gallon trash bag.

My turn!

But...irreversible. It was that irreversible part that gave me pause. I'd done the application, the orientation, the vaccinations and evaluations, I'd even signed the just-in-case waiver and received my allocations. And now here I was, mortified by the prospect of it all.

"It's your turn," said the guy behind me at the transformation processing station.

"You know, I'm not into this after all."

I pushed past him and the myriad of other suckers who all looked at me like I was diseased. My big, normal life was pretty small but going back to it, why, I felt ten feet tall.