MidReal Story
Freefall: Finding Passion Beyond TikTok
Scenario: Jake: If TikTok is Banned, I Will free fall
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A loud beeping sound fills the room, and I groan, stretching my arm out to blindly slap my alarm clock.
It’s the most annoying noise, and the only thing it does is alert me that it’s time for another day I’d rather avoid.
I hit the snooze button, because what the hell, I can get in a few more minutes of sleep.
No such luck.
“Jake, get up,” my best friend and roommate, Sarah, grumbles from her room.
“Turn off that stupid alarm.”
Sarah is short and has curly hair to her shoulders.
She’s also my complete opposite.
She’s organized, punctual, and always on top of things.
Me, well, not so much.
We live in a small two-bedroom apartment with our other friend, Alex.
I roll over in bed, pulling the blanket over my head in an attempt to block out the light coming through my bedroom window.
I’m pretty sure Sarah opened the blinds last night when I was out.
I close my eyes and cover my ears with my pillow.
“Get up,” Sarah calls again.
She sounds frustrated, but then again, she always does when it comes to me being lazy.
I don’t have to get up for another fifteen minutes,” I mumble, pulling my blanket tighter around me.
Sarah sighs heavily.
“What time does your shift start?”
I groan and sit up, throwing my pillow at the wall.
I’m coming,” I call out.
“Stop yelling at me.”
Sarah rolls her eyes at me as I stumble into the kitchen a few minutes later.
I grab a glass from the cabinet and fill it with water from the tap.
She’s sitting at our small kitchen table with her laptop open in front of her.
She’s already dressed and ready for the day ahead of her.
Meanwhile, I’m still wearing the same clothes I wore yesterday and my hair is even messier than usual.
Sarah shakes her head at me.
“When are you going to learn to set your alarm for earlier?”
I ask, taking a sip of my water.
“I don’t understand why you hit snooze so many times.
Just get up when it goes off.”
I lean against the counter, my eyes on her.
“Do you have any idea what time it is?
It’s before eight.
And I was up at seven.” She shakes her head, but I ignore her as I go back to my bedroom.
I shut off my alarm, grab my clothes, and head to the bathroom.
I take a quick shower, then get dressed.
There are clothes all over my bedroom floor, and my bed is unmade, but that’s just how I am.
Sarah always says I’m living in a pigsty.
I don’t see it that way.
My room is clean enough, or at least I think so.
She’s always on top of me to keep it clean, but I don’t really care.
I’m not messy, I’m just cluttered, and she should know that by now.
It’s just part of who I am.
I grab my phone from my nightstand and check my notifications before heading back to the kitchen.
"TikTok is banned!"
I head back into the kitchen after shutting my phone off and throwing it on the couch.
Sarah gives me a look when I walk in, but she doesn’t say anything about the mess on my floor or the fact that my hair is still damp from my shower.
I grab a granola bar from the cabinet and follow her into the living room.
She’s getting ready to leave for work and is pulling on her coat when she notices me standing there.
“What time are you going to work?”
“It’s like eight now.” She narrows her eyes at me again, but I ignore her and settle onto the couch with my laptop.
“I have a few hours.” She sighs and grabs her bag from the back of the door before walking over to me and leaning down to give me a hug.
“Try to be productive today, okay?”
“I am productive.” I frown up at her.
“Why does everyone always think I’m lazy just because I sleep in?”
“Get up earlier.”
“We’ve been over this.”
“It’s not that hard.”
I shrug at her as she straightens and heads to the door.
“I’ll see you tonight.”
I’ll be asleep when you get home,” I call out as she opens the door and steps into the hallway.
The door closes behind her with a loud click, and I sigh before opening my laptop again.
It’s my baby, my lifeline to all things TikTok.
I’m obsessed with the app and spend hours creating content to share with my followers and liking other people’s videos in return.
It’s not just a phase; it’s a part of who I am.
I know everyone says it’s stupid and a waste of time, but they don’t understand what it’s like to be completely addicted to something as much as I am to TikTok.
I’ve tried to wean myself off of it, but it never works.
I always come back for more, needing to see what I’m missing when I’m not creating or consuming content.
I open the app and start scrolling through my feed before clicking on a video to watch in its entirety.
It’s only when another video plays automatically that I realize what time it is, and I quickly close my laptop before setting it on the coffee table in front of me.
It’s almost nine o’clock, and I need to get to work on finishing up some content for the week if I want to meet my deadlines for my next video.
It takes me a minute to gather the motivation before pushing myself off the couch and heading into my bedroom.
I grab my laptop and head back out to the living room, settling down on the couch after grabbing a drink from the fridge in the kitchen.
I open my laptop again and get started on editing my latest video while listening to music playing through my earbuds.
