What Inspired “The Floodgates?” 

Originally the idea for this story came from the flash floods that were trending all over Google back in July. There had been a string of water leaks around my area and you could see the flush of water barreling down the streets. It gave me the idea for a story so I noted it in my notes and then put it away. Truthfully it’s hard to say what this story is inspired by because the rest goes off course as I didn’t talk about floods as I had originally planned. I believe it is because when I think about floods my first thought is not tsunamis or houses getting destroyed.  I thought of it like when you have an anxiety attack, how it’s a buildup of all the things you worry about and then it sneaks up on you, waiting for one trigger, one tick to set you over and it consumes you, swallowing you whole as you are flooded with all these thoughts. When you panic or feel very stressed you can feel stuck and just stand there staring at the thing you need to conquer because you are afraid to move. The worst part about it is, you think you’re the only one that can feel it, see it, since you’re the one trapped in your head but I ride to symbolize that in these moments your paralysis is evident to everyone around you, and that it’s okay to take small sips or large gulps of water to get to the surface.