What would you do if you were the last person on Earth?

Suppose you woke up one day and realized you were the only person around. All other people and animals had vanished, but other than that, everything else was the same. What would you do?

This is fun question to think about, and there really is a lot to think about if you put yourself in this situation. For this scenario, one direction to take it is that of survival. This would involve making sure you had food and basic necessities to survive for many years.

To make the scenario more fun, lets assume everything keeps running as usual even after everyone has disappeared. This means all utilities such as electricity, water, and internet still work. We will even say that resources like food will be automatically replenished so you do not have to worry about food expiring.

So basically everything would be the same but there would be no people or living things. Although there would still be things like the internet, it would not be populated by new content since there would be no people to create it.

If you found yourself in this situation, what would you do?

Where would you live?

Where would you go?

What would you do for fun?

What things would you try to find?

What would you like about this new situation?

What new challenges would you face?

I recommend try thinking about what you would do before reading what others would do. Below is what I came up with if I found myself in the situation of being the last person on Earth:

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At first, I would probably start out very cautious and not do too much out of the ordinary. I would probably explore a bit locally until I got to the realization that there were no other people around and this would be the new reality.

Then I would probably go to the grocery store to pick up a bunch of food. I think it would be fun to have the store all to yourself and be able to get anything without having to worry about the cost.

I would probably go to some of the local stores and pick up any supplies that might be needed such as tools or extra clothes. I might also go to a toy store or sporting goods store to try to find some activities for fun.

Next, I would probably start venturing out and head over to a car dealership to pick up a nice car. I would probably get one sporty car for fun, and also a van or SUV to use for transporting things. 

For safety, I would probably find some weapons as well because you would have to ensure your own protection now that there are no other people to protect you. There would be no threat of other people, but you would have to be prepared for anything just in case.

After having explored everything locally, I would start to venture out to other cities and start traveling around the country. For living situations, I would find homes or hotels at each location to stay at.

I might pick up a large RV camper to make traveling more comfortable and convenient. I would check out notable destinations like big cities, landmarks, and national parks. I think the traveling would help give a sense of purpose and would help prevent boredom.

One of the biggest challenges other than having to deal with loneliness would be safety. Since there would be no one to take care of you, you would have to be very careful not to get hurt. You can't call 911 if there is an emergency because there would be no one to respond.

Also you would have to be careful not to get stranded in the middle of nowhere. For example, if you were traveling long distance, you would have to make sure to have plenty of fuel as well as things like food and water in case anything were to happen.

After years, if I had explored everything within the country, I might consider trying to get to other countries. The challenge would be, it would probably involve travel by airplane or boat. These are skills that would need to be learned and even once learned would still involve some level or risk.

While I think being the only person on Earth would be fun at first, I have a feeling it would get boring or lonely sooner than expected. This might lead to a desperate attempt to find if there were any other people out there.

If years of searching did not find anyone, I would probably just continue trying to find new things to do and find ways to keep myself busy. It's hard to imagine a long term plan in this setting. I think it would involve just trying to stay healthy and keep searching to find any signs of life.

What would you do if you were the last person on Earth?

Writing Exercise - Vocabulary A-Z Creative Short Story

Sometimes at work I get bored and have some extra time on my hands. Having a computer and word processor at my disposal, I started coming up with activities that would develop my vocabulary and writing skills. Over time I developed a fun writing exercise that fills up time and helps you with creative writing.

You start by coming up with a list of words, A-Z, for example: alligator, balloon, capital... Then once you have your list, come up with an original sentence using each word. Try to make them interesting and lengthy. You will end up with 26 original sentences. This is a good start, but if you want to do the full exercise, you must relate all the sentences together so they actually make a story. At the end you will have an original short story using words that start with every letter of the alphabet.

Here is an example that I did. Note, it is missing a couple letters. After you have done a lot of these you start to realize that it's hard to keep coming up with new words for some letters like x and z. J, k, and q are challenging too after a while. Try to come up with a theme before you start writing your sentences so you have a little direction, but decide on the theme after you pick random words.

EXAMPLE:

Words: Accent, border, carriage, deliver, estimate, fragile, gallop, horizon, indifferent, jam, knowledge, lentil, mysterious, notorious, origin, proprietary, quiver, ridiculous, stationary, tractor, unfortunate, valuable, waffles.

Theme: driving in a foreign country.

Story:

Coming from the US, he had always loved the accent of the native speakers of the UK.

As he crossed the border from England to Scotland, he had to be careful to drive on the correct side of the road.

If he became careless, he might run into a carriage, another vehicle, or a pedestrian.

He had to deliver a package to a client before the end of the day.

His estimate was that it would take about an hour to get to his destination.

The contents of the package were fragile, so he had to be extra careful when moving it.

Along side the road he saw a horse gallop through an open field.

It looked so graceful against the sunrise in the horizon.

The horse appeared indifferent in relation to its surroundings.

Just then he came up to a traffic jam!

All the knowledge in the world wouldn't get him out of this one.

The truck in front of him belonged to a soup company and had pictures of minestrone, chicken noodle, and lentil soup.

A mysterious looking fellow wearing sunglasses and a cap was behind him in a Volkswagen sedan.

This road he had heard was notorious for it's congested traffic patterns.

The origin of the jam was unknown to him because he couldn't see around the soup truck.

He hoped the proprietary owner of the package would not be upset if the delivery was late.

The thought of having to explain why the package was late made him quiver.

Then again, he had until the end of the day to get there so his thought was actually ridiculous.

After having remained stationary for about 3 minutes, the cars finally began to move.

Still, it was slow and a big tractor in the field on the left was moving faster than he was.

He was hungry, but it was unfortunate he could not open the package.

What was inside was valuable and could not be opened or disturbed until it arrived at its destination.

What was inside was none other than fresh gourmet Belgian waffles!

The End

And there you have it!  Give it a try.  You can even post your story below in the comments section.  Good luck!