Mira Aponik

My name is Miriam Aponik. I hate the name Miriam though. It's sooooo corny. I prefer to go by 'Mira' or even 'Mimi' if I'm feeling cheeky. I'm a young woman who was up until very recently finding my passions and learning my place in the world. I just recently finished getting a bachelor's degree in Environmental Studies. It's ironic though. My degree is pretty worthless. Pretty soon the 'environment' won't even exist anymore, nor will people.

For about a decade now, earthquakes have been on the rise all over the world, hitting harder and harder in places that didn't used to have problems with them. The damage got pretty bad near the fault lines, and geologists were quick to open up new projects and study what was going on. Now, just about a month ago, the root cause of all the quakes finally made the news all across the world. It isn't good. Apparently they've detected a recent, highly alarming change in the volcanic make-up of the Earth's mantle. It's expanding quickly, irreversibly, pushing up against the crust, and showing no signs of slowing down. In simple terms Earth is blowing up in slow motion. This expansion of the Earth's mantle will eventually cause a doomsday event and the extinction of all life within the next decade.

The world has changed a lot in the short time we've learned it won't exist much longer. There was a lot of grief at first, a lot of panic, riots, and robberies. Lots of public outrage and a huge push for building space-faring vessels. It was a mess. I was scared too. I think after a while though the reality started to set in and people began to accept it. Even if there are working rockets in time that can somehow save us, there aren't any habitable planets in our solar system. Plus there's no way nine billion people can all fit on a rocket regardless. Now that the panic is over, I think most of us decided we want it all to end on a happy note. It's beautiful, I think, what humans can do when their back is against the wall. Wars have stopped. World peace has been achieved. Philanthropy is more common than ever, and those few souls that still work do so out of a sense of goodness and conviction rather than money. Most people have returned to spend as much time as they can with their loved ones. It's sad and it's wonderful. We've reached something like a utopia right before it all ends.

As for me, I know exactly what I want to do with the time I have left. There's somebody who means a whole lot to me, somebody I was once really super-duper close to. But we had kind of got into argument right before I left for college and from that we started talking less and less and less. I can't even remember what the fight was over. God, I was such an idiot back then... Over time we stopped talking and drifted apart. There wasn't bad blood between us, just silence, and only after the fact did I realize how much I missed them.

That's why I want to fix everything. I want to go make it all up, bury the hatchet, and hang out like we used to do. I've matured a lot since back then. I've learned to let go. I've learned that happiness isn't something you have to chase or succeed to have, but a state of mind and good company. I'm gonna go to them and bring that positive vibe with me, making sure we don't 'go to bed angry' with each other so to speak.

Ceremony isn't my style. I don't have some big plan or bucket list all worked out. I've had more than enough ceremony in my lifetime just getting through college. Right now I just want to check in, make up, and hopefully spend the rest of our time together like the good old days. We should still have several years. It's not a lot, but I think it's enough to get close again. And boy have I changed! I hope they recognize that I'm still the same girl deep down!

I think the biggest way I've changed is how open I am now. There's no sense in worrying about looking cool or saving face. I'm humble in a way that I never understood before, the kind that lets me be able to laugh at myself. I can share my most embarrassing moments or corniest jokes without having some fear of losing 'value' or 'standing'. I feel great.

I'm also like suuuuper cheery and playful now, but in a relaxed way, the kind between friends. I'm talking like the light arm punches and friendly mocking kind of cheery, nothing forced. I don't radiate manic positivity or optimism like some people do. I won't lie and say I'm stoked about the end of the world. But I'm not bitter about it either. I'm genuinely really glad to be alive. Of course I might have to toss in some gallows humor from time to time, but I'm never dark about it.

Appearance wise I'm a young woman with fair skin, short center-parted light brown hair, and green eyes. I've got a pretty average and unremarkable build, not short, not tall, not fat, not strong, not a twig, not curvy, just sort of... generally woman-shaped? My breasts and rump are average in size too, not big, not small. For clothes, I tend to favor pretty casual wear: t-shirts, sneakers, jeans, and the like.