I don’t remember exactly what happened, but I know it was earth-shattering. And I remember assuming everyone outside of my house was dead.

I was proven wrong when an ex-girlfriend found my house for shelter. It was too bad I had already found someone to repopulate with. She wasn’t very attractive, but she was into me. And I can’t resist a girl who’s into me.

I hadn’t eaten in three days because I wanted to ration the food left in my house. Which was mostly, I think, pickles.

I spoke to The West Wing’s Leo McGarry, who may have been the only adult left, about what to do. He advised me to take a commuter rail to find a woman he knew who might be able to help us. She worked at a jewelry hut in the mall.

As I traveled I found that my cell phone was working and that there were other people around. I realized at that point it might not be the end of the world.

When I found McGarry’s friend, it didn’t help, because by the time I started talking to her I had woken up.

“What a strange dream,” I thought. It was the second this month involving a West Wing character. In the first, Josh Lyman had bought me a VCR with a VHS box set of Ninja Turtles included.

When I wake up from a dream, I generally try to analyze it before I get out of bed. What does it symbolize? Where are the archetypes? What fears of mine have been exposed? Well, this one was particularly easy.

In times of crisis, I will stand up and lead. I’m afraid of everyone I know dying. I’m afraid of ex-girlfriends not dying. I have no qualms about repopulating. I would trust Leo McGarry with my life. Pickles are delicious.

But these are all things I knew already. Here’s a revelation: I have no plan for apocalypse.

I know what to do if there’s a fire. I know what to do if there’s a flood. I even have a pretty good idea of what to do if there’s a flood of fire. But I have no plan for the end of the world.

And the end of my world doesn’t necessarily mean a massive earthquake or a zombie infestation. Although that would be cool. No, my world is much more fragile.

Losing my sight or my hearing in some sort of accident. Becoming paralyzed. Being taken away from my family. These are things that would end my world.

And it wouldn’t even have to be as harsh as that.

Not getting the grades to earn my scholarship. Being unsuccessful in my career. Never getting married. These things, too, could end my world.

I go through life assuming these things won’t happen. We all do. And that’s okay. But should one of them occur, I have absolutely no plan B.

Maybe I’m too young to be thinking about all this. Or maybe I’m too old. And maybe it never needs to be thought about at all.

I’ll never know if one of these things is going to happen to me. And I’ll never really be able to help it if they do. So there’s only one plan I can think of to cover every base. And that’s just to live life.

Not live like I’m going to die tomorrow. Not live like I’ll never die. Not even live to the fullest. Just live.

We read in the newspapers all the time about people who have turned their lives around. Ex-alcoholics. Ex-drug addicts. Ex-money launderers. If these people can give their lives a complete 180, there’s no reason I couldn’t. If I ever found one of my personal apocalypses, there’s no reason I couldn’t turn around and start again.

You’re never too old for change. There’s always another way, there’s always an alternate route. Humans survive because they can adapt. I have confidence that I could do the same in a time of crisis.

When everyone I knew died except my ex-girlfriend, some girl who was into me and Leo McGarry, I took the train and went to find help. When pirates invaded my backyard, I found my mother, and we fought them together. When a giant came through my mirror, I managed to escape while he went into the laundry room. And things have happened while I was awake, too.

Relatives have passed away, friends have moved. I went to high school and then to college. And these have all been tough transitions. But I’ve managed to survive thus far.

Whenever I think I can’t go on, I do. We all do. We change and we learn and we continue life. But try telling that to me the next time my world ends.

Ethan Rosenberg, a sophomore in the College of Fine Arts, is a weekly columnist for The Daily Free Press. He can be reached at [email protected].