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Thirty Seconds
Please remain seated. You are about to experience thirty seconds.
During these seconds, fifty-two people will die. Five will commit suicide. One will be murdered. Ten will starve. The others will die in other ways. You will not see any of this on the news. Go.
One. Two. Three. Four.
Olivia just pulled the trigger. Her brother will find her.
Five. Six. Seven. Eight.
Baby Dimas died because no one could feed him.
Nine. Ten. Eleven. Twelve.
Angel is old and there is no one with her on her last day.
Thirteen. Fourteen. Fifteen.
You have now experienced thirty seconds. In the next thirty seconds these things will keep happening. They will happen while you sleep, they will happen while you eat, they will happen while you buy shoes, they will happen while you raise money to cure cancer, they happened while you were being born and they will happen while you die. They are happening now.
Please remain seated. You are again about to experience thirty seconds.
During these seconds, two hundred and fifty people will be born. One will be cured of blindness. One billion will smile. Half a billion will laugh. You will not see any of this on the news. Go.
One. Two. Three. Four.
Bae is laughing and crying at the same time because James is finally proposing.
Five. Six. Seven. Eight.
Vihaan just opened his eyes for the first time since surgery and he’s seeing light.
Nine. Ten. Eleven. Twelve.
Suzan can’t stop smiling--Vihaan can see her.
Thirteen. Fourteen. Fifteen.
You have now experienced thirty seconds. In the next thirty seconds these things will continue to happen. They will happen while you sleep, they will happen while you eat, they will happen while you buy shoes, they will happen while you raise money to cure cancer, they happened while you were being born and they will happen while you die. They are happening now.

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I wrote this piece after reading something online that said that one hundred and four poeple die every minute. I was trying to acutally understand that, make it feel real, and as I wrote I realized that so many horrible things are going on NOW that I can't do anything about--and it's the same with wonderful things. That's very humbling, isn't it?