We have a bathroom at home.

It's an ugly little thing, always had roaches in it. We normally never use it (it's the guest bathroom, in a home full of largely antisocial people), but when you take “rushing to school”, throw in some “4 boys sharing one bathroom”, and add a dash of “me being the last-born”, you get me, being forced to use the “3rd Bathroom”.

Of course, no one believed me when I said it was roaches.

Not “filled with roaches”. That was not a typo.

The bathroom itself was just…

Roaches.

This, but everywhere

Anywho, it need not be said I went to school A LOT as a kid without bathing (apologies to all my crushes at the time). Sometimes I was forced to bath there though, and even though I couldn’t see them (the lights didn’t work, in case the situation didn’t seem intercoursed enough already), I just knew they were everywhere. Watching... waiting...

And sometimes, just straight up diving on me.

Thus began my unholy fear of roaches.

Fast forward to my teen years and that fear was still there. Every time I saw a roach in the living room I would, to save face, do my best to "casually" remark something to the effect of “them roaches are at it again, yo”. If no one did anything about it, I just “casually” left the room to go attend to some other pressing matter.

Duty calls...

Fast forward to more recent months. I was babysitting my cousins when one them screamed that they saw a roach. I looked where she was pointing, and I was certain I was looking into the face of Satan.

It was a demonic looking thing. Probably as big as your feet (I don’t care you all have individually sized feet, just look down at your foot. Yeah, that big). The antennae could hold up bridges. He had OBVIOUSLY never skipped leg day, and I could have sworn he spoke Aramaic.

Now on a normal day, I'd say my knee jerk response would be to swear allegiance and ask how I could serve him in the coming new world. Maybe ask if I could be the Special Adviser on all Thumb-Related Activities.

The greatest bargaining chip for the coming storm

Yet, I just casually (Hey! For real this time!) walked over to it, smacked it with a shoe, and went back to my video game. My cousin walked up to me, her eyes filled with glorious wonder, “Weren’t you scared?” she said, spoken as if from worshipper to god.

“Nope”. And then it hit me. It really hit me. I wasn’t scared. Not one bit. At most I was mildly frustrated. I am no longer afraid of cockroa...

Nope. Saw one a few days later, still scared shitless.

So when I was with my little cousins I wasn’t scared, but alone or with someone I believe is in charge for some reason, I’m a little punk.

Why is that?

Now I’m sure you already have some suggestions; possibly along the lines of me feeling responsible for them and all that kumbaya crap. To which I say, “Shut up, don’t ruin it”

Also, you’re wrong.

In my opinion, I believe it boils down to a more…selfish reason. It’s not about protecting your loved ones. No, if it were that simple, it would barely even be worth an article.

It’s all about survival.

Which appears to be an acquired skill

The best example is with group projects. If you show up to the meeting and people have already carried the whole thing on their head, then great! No wahala, you walk out and leave them, comfortable enough to just laze about till submission time.

But if you come to a meeting that's filled with people whose uselessness is second only to yours, you’re gonna get your shit together. D’you believe it’s due to some internal caring for the lazy bums who don’t want to get anything done? Hell no, you just don’t want to fail.

**You want to survive. **

Same way when you’re travelling with your parents you pay no heed to most of the little details, stuff like “which gate is our plane leaving from” or “who’s holding the passports” or “where the hell is Jimmy?!”

Not again Jimmy

But when you’re with people who you’re above you watch out for all of that. Not because if you don’t all of you will be stranded, but because YOU’LL be stranded. YOU'LL be stuck in the middle of nowhere. YOU'LL be the one explaining why Jimmy looks like a serial killer to airport security.

In summary, we’re all selfish people. We only care about shit when it directly affects us and there’s no one around to deal with it. Everybody. You, me, my wicked cousins that left my fate in the hands of Belze-bug: everyone.

United...in a singular goal to be selfish A-holes

So own it. You’re no knight in shining armour.

You’re just a far less sexy Loki.

---

New laptop, new look!

To all Musings fans, you might have noticed the change in the intro photo. There will be more changes, as I've decided to modify the photos depending on the type of article.

Yup. "Type" of article.

I'm going to be switching up the Musings as much as possible, variety being the spice of life and all. I'm looking to incorporate a SteemSTEM Musings or two into the mix (maybe monthly, those things are pretty hard to right). Always though, the new (and probably unchanging) closing photo will forever remain as a flag.

I'm also thinking of starting a contest, but that's a little bit down the line from right now. We'll see what happens. It's definitely in the works though.

Well, that's about it for now. Be sure to comment, upvote and resteem. Most importantly, stick around.

We're gonna have some fun.

All images courtesy of Pixabay