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Fatality The movie spontaneous begins with everyone running out of a classroom because one of their classmates exploded, literally. As the film progresses, more and more students started to combust into non-existence. Forensics got involved as everyone tried to figure out the root cause. Following the first explosion, the protagonist, Mara, hints that it would happen again, leaving her peers in fright of being unable to see tomorrow. In the face of all the catastrophes, Mara decides to live life to its fullest before it all vanishes. As any literary work is subject to individual hermeneutics, this movie left me in retrospect. It triggered a memory of when my family and I walked on a mortality-tight rope, hoping we don't lose balance. As someone who lived amid a civil war, I knew what it felt like to expect death to knock at my door at any moment. My family and I lived in a city called Sodo, Maremiya, where tribal massacre and ostracization of non-locals were typical. I remember countless days when my family and I would barricade ourselves for days to elude getting slaughtered by Yalaga. No more fresh air but a scent of failure. No more playing with the kids outside, no more school. I was afraid and in terror. I am the first born so how could I, right? I was supposed to be their armor but I needed cover. I didn't want us to die, not like this: poor and wasted. Watching this movie flooded vivid memories I had of what things were like back in those days. As there is a silver lining to every cloud, despite this woeful chapter of our lives, something profound happened to my family. When we were conditioned to hide behind closed doors for months, our relationships grew roots further. Every minute I saw my mom's eyes and felt her hands were pleasantly endearing. It was as though we became suddenly conscious of how valuable our relationships were, and every minute counted because the next could be the last. Since then, the actual query, to me, has never been about the meaning of life, but about the meaning of life in the face of misfortune. Not to belittle peoples' predicaments, but we all, I believe, suffer in our way. I discovered that meaning is found in tragedy too. If suffering arrives, arrive it will; there is wisdom in viewing it as a purifying element. Isn't every gold refined by fire? A French Novelist, Marcel Proust, was once asked by a journalist what he would do if a meteor was announced to annihilate earth. He replied that life would have been suddenly wonderful to us, and we all would have been booking trips to India, visiting museums and all the glamorous places before we went away. "We shouldn't have needed the cataclysm to love life today. It would have been enough to think that we are human and that death may come this evening," said Proust. The thought of owning our possessions —be they material or immaterial— for eternity is the sole cause of negligence towards those things we value. Confucius beautifully said, "we have two lives; the second one begins when we realize we only have one." Thus, I learned that Mortality is not an event yet to come but a state we are constantly in. The universe is not concerned about our personal narrative. I might have met the love of my life or just published my first book, yet, it can all be my last. No wonder we call events that render death "fatal," which means it is the when and where of when we meet our fate: Fate-al. Moreover, I realized that this was not a truth to gloom over but a reality to set me free from the illusion of eternity. Thus, I found meaning in finitude. The singer Megan Trainor poetically captured this notion in her song: Like I'm gonna lose you. She sang, "I'm gonna love you like I'm gonna lose you. I'm gonna hold you like I am saying goodbye." That became a principle I live by; To love, give, write, invent, start businesses, and make a better world like I am saying goodbye—before I and the grim reaper meet.