Everything felt totally normal until March 16th. It was that day when I went out to run errands and someone complimented my sweatshirt. “I love that color! I feel like it’s hard to find clothes that are cyan and it’s my favorite color.” The stranger said to me in a very friendly voice. I responded with a polite “Thank you” and moved on. I looked down at what I was wearing to remind myself and it wasn’t the color I remembered cyan being. I thought it was strange this lady had no idea what the color cyan was. If it was her favorite color shouldn’t she know?
Later that night, my sister came over for dinner. Midway through the meal I remembered what happened and mentioned it. My sister looked at me confused and told me that I was wrong and the lady that talked to me was correct. What started out as me mentioning a funny interaction I had in public, ended in me feeling so confused. We looked it up and sure enough, my sweatshirt is indeed cyan. I could’ve sworn that cyan was an orange/yellow color. Apparently it’s a blue or slightly green color. But hey, a common Mandela effect I’ve heard people mention is they thought the color chartreuse was pink or purple color when it’s actually more of a lime green or yellow color. Plus, cyan isn’t a super common color. If it was getting blue and orange mixed up, I would’ve been more confused. I went to sleep and spent the next day not even thinking about the color cyan. Little did I know it was just the beginning of so much more.
A couple days later, I was scrolling YouTube and saw a new video analyzing this year’s Super Bowl. I’m pretty into football and am a huge 49er fan. Except, in the thumbnail of the video, I saw something strange. Patrick Mahomes holding up the trophy. I clicked on it because I thought maybe they used an image from last year’s Chiefs win by mistake. After 10 seconds into the video I thought it was a joke. The guy in the video talking about how amazing the chiefs win was. The CHIEFS win? I know for a FACT that the 49ers own. I mean, that is my team. It has been for the last 15 years of my life. I went into my closet to find the superbowl champions shirt I bought myself and I couldn’t believe it. It was a Chiefs shirt. Why on earth would I have bought this? Am I crazy? How could I miss remembering something like that?
A few small strange things happened the following days. Vanilla is my all time favorite scent. I love it with candles, baked goods, and it’s my signature perfume. I wear it almost every day. I sprayed on my perfume and it smelled…weird. Not bad like it was expired. Just not like I remember it. It was more earthy before. Now it’s almost sweet? I smelled my candle to be sure and it had the same scent. Same with some vanilla extract I had in my pantry. All the same. Not bad by any means. Just not the scent I’m used to. And yes, vanilla flavored things taste off too.
Next, I was watching friends for the 100th time and noticed Rachel’s character. How is she all of a sudden played by Jennifer Aniston? It’s always been Sandra bullock.
Next, one of my favorite Queen songs does not exist anymore. It’s called “little sunshine” and I can’t find it anywhere. Used to be everywhere streaming. It was on the album “a night at the opera”. I don’t have a physical copy of it but it seems to not be listed on any images I could find. A huge disappointment. I really love that song.
Those are just a couple of examples of small things that I noticed over the next week. Along with minuscule differences like names of restaurants or people being different, things being the wrong color, historical dates and events being slightly off, my blankets not being as soft as I remembered. New decorations or random objects appearing, disappearing or changing. For example: The sink is gone from the doorway and is now in the bathroom, a poster for the movie “back to the future” has appeared, All my doors have new little locks on the handles that you twist to lock, and the soap in my kitchens soap dispenser now has a slippery feeling to it.
I went to the ER because I was extremely concerned, and so was my family. They gave me a psychological exam and a brain scan. Long story short, they ran all kinds of tests and didn’t see anything wrong. I was honestly disappointed. They said I was fine and to just go home and get some rest. They said maybe it was stress and gave me a doctor’s note to take off work for a couple weeks.
I went to my place of work to let my boss know in person. I walked in, found her and I asked if we could sit down and talk. She looked at me like I was crazy. She asked what this was about looking confused as ever. I told her that I just went to the doctor and needed to discuss some things. She then looked even more worried and asked if we knew each other. What? How could she not know me? I’ve worked at this restaurant for 2 years. I waited for a minute to see if she was kidding although, it would be strange for her to be making jokes after what I said to her after all. After a moment she put her hand on my arm and asked if I needed a ride home or if I needed any help. I couldn’t believe it. She didn’t know who I was.
I keep a name tag in my car and I went to get it to prove to my boss and myself that I did in fact work there…apparently I work somewhere different now.
I traveled a few minutes up the road to the restaurant I supposedly work at now. When I walked in, the person who seemed to be the manager came up to me, said my name and asked if I was okay. All I could do was reach into my pocket and hand him my now crumbled doctor’s note. I watched awkwardly as he read the note. I saw his eyes darting back and forth as his expression changed. He gave me a kind smile and said it was no problem at all and to get all the rest I needed. I mean, that’s great and all but I literally have no clue what my job is here. I now have the anxiety of not knowing how to do my job when I go back to work. I’ll look like an idiot when I can’t do my job. I have literally 0 memorie of it.
I sat in my car for a minute trying to gather myself. After about 20 minutes I started my car and headed home. The restaurant is only 10-15 minutes from my apartment and it’s only a couple of turns. Even though it’s not the restaurant I remember driving to everyday for work, it’s just up the road and I do eat there often so I’m very familiar with how to get home. After driving for 10 minutes I was completely lost. I didn’t recognize anything. Not just that, but street signs looked different. Traffic lights were the wrong colors. It was making me dizzy. I had to use my phone’s navigation to get me home which felt Ridiculous. I grew up here, how can I not find my own apartment?
I got my navigation up and was amazed to find I was 40 minutes from home. I couldn’t believe it. It was getting late. I was starving and stressed. I decided to grab some McDonald’s and put on a podcast. I knew that would pass the time.
I pulled up to the window and ordered my favorite menu item: the McQuesadilla with special sauce. The employee laughed through that dumb speaker box. I was so confused why he laughed. It was quiet for a second and I asked if they were out. He laughed again and just said how it was a good joke and how he hadn’t heard that one before. I told him I’ve been getting that item my whole life and I’m not joking. He said that I must be confused with a different restaurant. I know I’m not getting them mixed up. It literally had BigMac sauce on it. Where else would make that? I suddenly lost my appetite. I decided to drive home and eat something then.
As I continued my drive home, I listened to a podcast. After a couple minutes, they mentioned something about “ South Dakota” and I laughed. I thought they were making a joke. Once again with the jokes… They didn’t seem to think it was funny and I was confused. I needed gas anyway, so I pulled over to the nearest gas station.
I got out my phone and looked at a map while my tank filled with gas. I was in shock. I couldn’t believe it. There is a South AND North Dakota? Last time I checked, it was just one big Dakota. Why are there two now? What’s the point of that?
I skimmed the map to see if I noticed any other obvious changes. I never claimed to be good at geography, but in just a few minutes I found a few problems. “Mane” and “Virginia” seemed to be flipped. The names I mean. Virginia used to be at the very top of the North East side of America, now apparently Mane is there? And the same with Virginia. It’s now where Mane used to be. The province of Toldove is now completely missing from Canada. And Russia is twice the size it was before.
I’m writing this while I’m in my car terrified. I know I need to get home but I can’t convince myself to keep driving. I can feel the world changing before my eyes. I’ll update everyone after I can get my head around things.