Hello, hello! Are you a real person?
I am!
Yay! Real people are the best. Definitely my favorite kind of person. Also, I love your username. Best one I've seen in a while. You know, I haven't seen you around here before. Are you new? Or have I just been unlucky? (Sorry, sorry, I'll let you respond.) (I get excited sometimes.)
Thanks. Probably just a lot of people chatting and I'm not on very often.
That makes sense. Though, there are less people on here than you might expect.
That is true. I feel like it's mostly just CS majors
Right?
But anyhow, what are your thoughts on the prompt?
Oh, right right, the prompt. Lemme just scroll up for a second. Oh! It's a fun one this time. Quite frankly, I think most things in Western countries would suddenly fail. A couple hundred thousand would die, I believe.
Totally. Just basing off of how I feel when the internet is gone for about an hour I can't imagine what would happen to us.
By the end of the day. Ugh, I know, right?
There was a show on TV a while back called Revolution that was kind of like that.
I'm thinking about things that rely on connection, like public transportation, clocks, etc. Oh, really? I've never heard of it. What's it about?
It's about people living in the world after a permanent electrical power outage that happened 15 years before It basically turned post-apocalyptic
Oh, goodness. That sounds awful.
It's an old show though, it started in like 2012
Honestly, our entire civilization would collapse. Oh, yeah? I can't imagine it's still airing.
It's so true. I think it only had like two seasons on NBC
I see.
It was a good show though. It's interesting thing to think about
If you think about it, all medical equipment runs on electrical power--or the main things, at least. That's all hospitals suddenly nullified. Then there's things like police and other security. Boom. Impotent now.
Yeah. If the power goes it's not just like the lights got turned off but everything
Everything. Could you imagine?
Nope.
We'd be disconnected from the world again. Or maybe not again. We'd be disconnected.
I lived in a place once where we only had a 12 hour light schedule but even that was awful
12-hour light schedule? How does that work? And what on earth?
So we had light from 5:30pm- midnight, then from 6am- 11:53am
Uh. Okay. Why?
The rest of the time we relied on a back up generator.
Was it scarce or something? Oh. Where on earth were you living? Because that sounds, um, stressful and annoying.
The back up generator wasn't very good. Only had enough power to keep one fan on low at night. The power was scarce and people very rarely  paid their bills I was living in the boonies of the Dominican Republic
Wow. That sounds like a, uh, sketchy place.
It was annoying. I had to wash my clothes at very weird times.
How did you manage it? I'm not sure that's something I could handle.
It really wasn't too sketchy. Just a finicky light schedule.
So strange. I've never heard of anything like that before.
You learn to cope.
How long did you live there?
It's pretty common in rural areas of less-developed countries
Because, wow, that'd be hard. Well, just goes to show you how often I live in those areas.
I was in that particular area for about three months but the whole country for a year and a half
I'm assuming you're a girl, yes?
Yup! It was for a mission
It's just, that whole "year and a half" bit sounds awfully--yup, I was just about to say. I'll be leaving on mine in a little bit, but I don't think it's going to be so rural. Or maybe it might be? I don't know. I'll be leaving to Argentina in a little bit.
Nice. You're going to come back with a terrible accent
Supposedly, supposedly. Ugh, I've heard. Everyone I've talked to has offered their condolences. First, it's "Eeee! Argentina!" followed by, "But, oh, you're accent." It's so funny.
It'll be great I've heard the food there is amazing and the church is super strong there
Oh, is it really? I don't really know what to expect. I've been thinking about it for a while. I don't leave until February, which leaves me with four months until the departure. That's a lot of time to think.
I had to wait a long time as well
Yeah? How many months?
I think it was also four months Yeah, four and a half
That's so long. Was there a reason for yours?
Just the Lord's timing I guess
I guess it's the same for me. Right when I got my call, it was five months, but it's four now. I don't know why.
My tip for what to expect would be to look up blogs from people who have served in that same mission and read their experience.
Oh, right! There are blogs for there, aren't there? There meaning the mission field. I forgot about those. I'm sure there are plenty for my area. I just . . . heh, I don't know. I think about the future, and I don't know what it holds for me. There are so many people my age that are so much further than me. People who have experience and internships and everything. They've already done so much with their life, and they'll be going on to amazing places--and then you have me.
You'll never be punished for doing what god wants you to do
I know. And I believe that.
And I get it
But even without a mission, I'd still be way behind.
I would have been graduating this year if I hadn't gone on a mission
But now you're here. And I'm hoping you don't regret your decision to serve?
Never 100% worthwhile
I'll never regret my decision to serve, either, but . . . sometimes it scares me to think about how much I'll have to catch up on. People my age are interning at Google. Google. As in, the big place. The top 5 tech companies. Insane place to intern at. And I just . . . I don't . . . I don't have experience like that.
It'll come
I'm going to go out, and I'm going to serve with all I have. But by the time I DO get that experience, everyone else will have more.
That's the way to do it.
Just locked in this vicious cycle of could-have-beens. Did you know that some of my classmates started interning at 15?
When one door closes another one opens. That is insane
Yeah. I plan to make the most of what I have, but I can't but think I'd have so much MORE if I'd just applied myself.
I definitely was  not doing that at 15
Went out and did stuff instead of . . . whatever it was I was going then. You and me both. And now it feels like I'm behind. Everyone in my field is so smart.
What is your major?
Computer science. I swear, everyone knows more than me.
Not me haha. Well I've gotta go. Good luck!