When Lightning Struck My Feed

My golden retriever Max decided that exact moment—the peak of my TikTok transition—to barrel through the frame like a fuzzy, chaotic comet. I groaned, checking my iphone screen. Yep. The video was ruined. Again.

"Max, bro, you're literally killing my clout game," I sighed, shoving another handful of spinach into my mouth. My mom had started this whole "wellness journey" phase, which translated to me eating like a rabbit and choking down these massive vitamin supplements that tasted like chalk and despair.

I was trying to film this glow-up content, you know? Before and after pics. But my before was just me looking awkward with salad in my teeth, and my after was... well, still looking awkward with salad in my teeth.

Then the storm hit.

Like, actually hit. Lightning struck somewhere so close that our entire block went dark. No wifi. No service. My phone died at 13%.

I sat in the kitchen with my mom, just the glow of emergency candles flickering against the walls. No notifications. No dinging. No carefully curated content to stress about. Max curled up at my feet, snoring like a freight train.

"You know," my mom said, surprising me by actually sounding cool for once, "you don't need all that stuff to be amazing. You're already enough."

I looked at the spinach on my plate, at Max drooling on the rug, at my mom smiling like she knew something I didn't. And for some reason, I started laughing. Like, actually laughing.

Maybe the lightning wasn't just destroying my wifi. Maybe it was lighting up something real.

My phone would come back on eventually. The feed would keep spinning. But for tonight, in the candle glow with my ridiculous dog and my weirdly wise mom, I kind of liked the unfiltered version better.