An Analysis of the Flash Experience "I Think I'll Be Okay"

I Think I'll be Okay is a flash experience (I would use game but it's really not a game at all) that follows the author's expressions and emotions while dealing with depression, isolation, and a toxic familial setting. It plays in a similar fashion to a choose your own adventure type book and has more reader input than a simple novel or short story, yet it still follows a progression that cannot be changed.

The author uses beautiful imagery and diction to create a somber and deeply provoking setting. I would not suggest playing this if you are going through some depression or even an existential crisis at the moment as, coming from experience, these kinds of things can really be quite the trigger into worsening things, so precede with caution.

However, if you find yourself to be a pretty emotionally stable person, it's not really gonna have it's full effect on you. The nature of this type of narrative is most effective in portraying emotion to those who have some sort of depressive history, as this will allow the reader to better understand and relate to the situation.

All warnings aside, the rest of this post will contain spoilers, so I would suggest playing the story before continuing.

Coming from a very empathetic person, this story was very very touching for me. It really displays how a situation is all that you  make it. The narrator is trapped in a hostile situation and feels constantly isolated, and the blur of time yet mild comprehension of a timeline is a fantastic measure of creating the feeling of being stuck to the reader. Yet despite this, the narrator finds a happiness in their life through the jars of rain. Although overall the entire piece is a somber story, the final part is a tad more uplifting, and I even cried a little while reading it. This ending created a feeling a hope near the end, and is inspiring towards those who might be going through a similar situation. 

Although the story also partakes in the "my situation is tough but this person has it worse" guilt effect. Nothing feels worse than this guilt. Like, who the heck wants to think "Yeah I failed this test but this person fails every test". It brings up the topic of how belittling feelings is sometimes even worse than the feelings themselves. No one should ever have to be told "your feelings are irrelevant" as all we do as humans is seek relevance. The narrator in this story is struggling with this very same thing, relevance. They feel no companionship and it is isolating. There is no one to confirm that their feelings are justified, so they feel guilty for having them.

Within this lack of justification, we can see why it is so helpful for people who are going through personal struggles to get help from a third party. They can tell them that it's okay to feel this way and help them move on, while without this the person's emotions will only fester. This third party can be many many things. It can be a friend, a therapist, a family member, or a god. In my opinion, this is one of the only useful things about theology in modern society, personal comfort and security. This security is how people are so fervent in their faith, and it is totally understandable. It's uncomfortable to face difficult life questions, and sometimes faith lets us slide by with answers that aren't fully supported by anything other than "you just gotta believe". Yet if faith is what makes you happy, then that's alright.

The narrator in the story uses faith as a comfort as well, as they pray to the rain. "Pray to the rain?" The Abrahamic religions say, "That's paganism." Yes, yes it is, but is that so bad? Who's to say that the idea that everything is god versus god is everything is not the more modern theological idea.

However, this is a different discussion for a different day. 

Maybe..... next time?