The World Is at Your Fingertips
by Nicolette Jane
I like to remind myself of just how much control I have over my life by eating a gallon of birthday cake icecream for breakfast. Oh, and life hack: If you’re running late or just having an existential crisis, I highly recommend winding the clock back about three hours. Gives you plenty of time to finish getting ready or experience your mental breakdown without feeling rushed. My newest hobby consists of ripping pages from my favorite books and stuffing them in my boots, taping them to my forehead, and when I’m feeling really wild, turning them into paper planes that I throw at people who make fun of me for having chapter one of Anne of Green Gables fanning around my head like a crown. Lately, I’ve also really been into only responding to emails using Taylor Swift lyrics. My professors have expressed concern, but my coworkers are grateful ‘cause it’s really good fuel for workplace gossip. When men twice my age approach me in the frozen food aisle, I’ve made a habit of ripping open a bag of brussel sprouts and throwing them at the men while alternating between growling and screaming the lyrics to “I Did Something Bad.” The whole act really throws them off their game, and I consider it a win for women everywhere. With a bit of shame, I’ll admit I sometimes sit in trees with squirrels and drop acorns on people. I’m not always such a menace though. Sometimes I just like to cut a random chunk of my hair off so I look kind of silly. And sometimes I like skipping and dancing and stomping on my way to class. And if I’m feeling really wild, I’ll do nothing out of the ordinary at all. I’ll wait at the bus stop. I’ll flip back and forth between TV channels. I’ll double knot my tennis shoes.
Nicolette Jane is a poet and fiction writer from Indiana. She primarily writes poems and stories about the human experience, especially experiences that engage with themes of childhood, nostalgia, new adulthood, and identity. When she’s not losing herself in words or worlds of her own creation, she enjoys reading a good book, going on adventures with friends and family, and consuming an unreasonable amount of coffee. She can be found on Instagram @nicolettejanewrites.
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What surprising, fascinating stuff can you tell us about the origin, drafting, and/or final version of “The World Is at Your Fingertips”? I wrote “The World Is at Your Fingertips” at about one o’clock in the morning during the spring semester of my senior year of college. Moments before writing this piece, I had quickly thrown together an assignment and turned it in minutes before it was due. My brain was very tired, and I was dreading the monotony and stress that the following day would inevitably bring as I anticipated a day full of more assignments, annoyances, and responsibilities. With a slightly bitter mindset, I began to imagine and write a reality in which a person engaged in little acts of rebellion against ordinary life in an effort to regain a sense of control, and by the end of my rambling, I came to the conclusion that we don’t always have to take life or ourselves all that seriously and that we don’t have to be passive participants in our own lives.
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