My brain specializes in disturbing end-of-the-world scenarios that are just far enough on the plausible side to be extra terrifying.

As an example, I present last night’s dream:

In the dream, I’m out on our balcony looking at the stars on a clear night. I notice very quickly, however, that not only can I see the stars but I can also see the International Space Station. But it’s not a little dot like it usually is; rather, it’s SUPER CLOSE and I can see it in detail. Then I realize that I can see all sorts of space debris, like old discarded pieces of space crafts, random satellites, etc.

I think this is super cool and a product of Calgary’s skies being so clear, so I take a picture of it and send it to my mom. She responds by saying that something bad is happening and that I should turn on the news.

It turns out that the US government, in an effort to do…something (probably strengthen the military), has messed up one of the outer layers of the earth’s atmosphere (I’m not sure which, but I’m gonna say the ionosphere because that makes the most sense). Specifically, they accidentally made it way more magnetic than it should be. The result? All of the relatively close metal-based space debris is being drawn towards earth and is all starting to re-enter the earth’s atmosphere. As I’m listening to this news, I can actually see all of these pieces of debris get closer and closer in the sky, with one piece turning bright red as it falls into the upper atmosphere. The news anchor is telling people to be prepared for mass destruction* and to get underground if possible.

This is, of course, terrifying. In addition, the news says, the increased magnetic nature of the ionosphere is messing with all the electronics on earth. Sure enough, soon my phone no longer works and my conversation with my mom is cut off. My computer monitor, too, starts to dim and then eventually dies as well.

At this point I’m panicking, because I know I have to get Nate (who is nowhere to be found in the dream), Jazzy, and all our important stuff together and out of the condo as fast as possible. I’m also worried about my mom. She, however, shows up in the condo a few minutes later (hooray dream logic) and we both start to scramble to get things together to evacuate the building.

By this point, the power grid is starting to fail and the lights flicker and go out entirely. Now it’s dark (it’s still nighttime) and I can’t find a flashlight or Jazzy or her carrier or any of the other important stuff we need to keep with us (passports, etc.). Meanwhile, more and more pieces of debris are breaking through the atmosphere and crashing all around us, with some of the neighboring buildings going up in flames as burning pieces of metal collide with them.

It’s just this overall feeling of helpless panic.

Then I wake up.
Ugh.

I guess the takeaway from these nightly “here’s how you might die!” dreams is that this is the third one in the past week where in the dream, I’ve regretted the fact that I did not have things prepared for a quick evacuation (emergency bag + important stuff ready to be quickly gathered and taken with me). I’m assuming this is the universe telling me to get that stuff ready just in case.

Because you never know.

*In reality, most of these objects are probably small enough that they would just burn up before hitting the earth, but still…terrifying, right?