"Childhood's over the moment you know you're gonna die"

[uzo]

So Escapists ... when was the moment you knew you were gonna die? Can you place the moment?



For me, I remember it quite clearly. I'd just finished watching the comedy 'Clue' (about the board game). I was brushing my teeth getting ready for bed and then it hit me -- BAM -- one day I will *die*. I also realised that far more than the boogie man, Darth Vader, or ghosts, the thing I need to be most wary of is other humans because people KILL each other.

Funny how it took a comedy about multiple homicides for me to realise it. It took that singing telegram girl for me to realise death happens to all of us ("I am your singing telegram!" BANG! .... crumple).

EDIT: Oh yeah, I was probably around 6 yrs old or so. And the thread title is one of Top Dollar's lines from The Crow. I actually stuck it into one of my 3U English HSC Finals essays lol.

 

[AlAaraaf74]

When my pet fish Lucky stopped swimming, I knew one day I would stop swimming too...

Edit: I love Clue the movie! The singing telegram girl's death was ironically funny.

 

[Shockolate]

The opening of the movie Twister, where the guy gets sucked out trying to hold the door closed.

First time I was ever truly terrified.

 

[Evil Top Hat]

I don't understand, how could you know what death is and not realise that you will one day die? Once you grasp the concept of death it seems strange to me that you wouldn't see that you will die as well.

 

[Tommeh Brownleh]

I was about 5. My childhood was over when I was 5

 

[Z of the Na'vi]

What a morbid way of thinking. Life is precious, why would I want to think about the day I die?

How very depressing.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Around about 5 years old, I think. I cried for days.

Then I got over it. And kept on being a child. Not stopped yet

 

[TheHappySquid]

About once a week since I was about six, in the middle of the night this thought plays over and over through my head. I'm 18 and every time I still have to turn on a light and read a book for half an hour before I can get to sleep. But I still consider my childhood to have lasted, possibly even up till now.

I think if I ever get round to dying (I'mma try not to ) I'll be calmer about it, but for now no dice.

 

[StereoMike]

At my grandfather's funeral when I was about 11. It didn't stop me from being a child though.

 

[JoJo]

I don't understand, how could you know what death is and not realise that you will one day die? Once you grasp the concept of death it seems strange to me that you wouldn't see that you will die as well.

It may seem illogical to us but children take a surprisingly long time to work out things like that. They usually first understand that death involves a seperation, then that it's permanent and happens to all things and finally that that includes them. They may not also understand at first what that fully entails either as often kids have the knowledge to understand something but not the emotional maturity to understand how they would feel about it if it actually happened. Adults often forget this when they retrospectively remember their childhood as they overlap their adult perception over their old memories without even thinking about it.

OT: I don't think so, as I wrote above there's often a gap between children knowing something and understanding it's full consequences. For me, I can remember so little of my childhood that I can't remember when I learnt this anyway.

 

[Evil Top Hat]

It may seem illogical to us but children take a surprisingly long time to work out things like that. They usually first understand that death involves a seperation, then that it's permanent and happens to all things and finally that that includes them. They may not also understand at first what that fully entails either as often kids have the knowledge to understand something but not the emotional maturity to understand how they would feel about it if it actually happened. Adults often forget this when they retrospectively remember their childhood as they overlap their adult perception over their old memories without even thinking about it.

Huh, I guess that makes sense, thanks. I don't ever remember there being a specific time when I realised I was going to die.

However, it took me about 7 months worth of continually asking my parents if I was 4 years old yet to figure out how birthdays worked, so I'm not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed.

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

Um... how about the moment when I realised I'm alive? Around 6th grade, got a lot of introspective feelings on existence and essentially mind-fucked myself.

Other than that, no, can't say I had a powerful realisation that I'm gonna die one day. No reason to think about it.

Same thing happened to me, but it happened in the 8th grade.

I don't know how long yours lasted, but for me it lasted several months....not fun.

 

[2012 Wont Happen]

When I was about three and my parents told me that eventually everything dies.

Then they said some shit about living forever after I died which I believed until I was about thirteen.

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

Um... how about the moment when I realised I'm alive? Around 6th grade, got a lot of introspective feelings on existence and essentially mind-fucked myself.

Other than that, no, can't say I had a powerful realisation that I'm gonna die one day. No reason to think about it.

Same thing happened to me, but it happened in the 8th grade.

I don't know how long yours lasted, but for me it lasted several months....not fun.

Can't recall that well, probably the same. I wouldn't call it fun, but it was definitely... interesting. Like looking up at the stars and suddenly getting dizzy with vertigo.

I remember very little, but I do remember just staring a lot and doing a lot of thinking. That year was a blur, how I managed to move onto high school I will never know. Feeling absolutely lost is probably the experience and word I'm looking for there.

 

[ChuQue37]

I guess I'm still a child, then?

I'm not gonna die. I consider it an impossibility.

 

[Tentickles]

When I started having thoughts of how nice it would be if my elementary school classmates would just 'disappear.'

I was bullied a lot as a child.

 

[HT_Black]

I was lying down on my bed one day--I had just turned seven.

Then it hit me.

 

[LT Cannibal 68]

When I started having thoughts of how nice it would be if my elementary school classmates would just 'disappear.'

I was bullied a lot as a child.

I'm not gonna lie to you mate that gave me a fucking chill that ran up and down my spine.