you know that ADHD feeling where you’ve got something coming up, some big plan or some small thing you’re looking forward to, some event happening in the future, and your whole being seems to put itself in standby mode? it’s just waiting. that’s all life is, until finally your thing happens and then it’s over. it’s over and now you don’t know what to do with yourself.
can you imagine Percy’s experience with that feeling? for four years of his life, he’s been told his existence was outlawed because of a prophecy that could destroy Olympus. so he knows. he knows that either he’ll die before this happens, or he’ll be the one in the prophecy. he’ll be the reason the gods have lived in fear since this prophecy’s creation.
he’s got that hanging over him for years. that death or that destiny.
and then he reads the prophecy. he learns the wording, learns the future, and realizes, “this was only ever going to end with my death.” he’s the half-blood of the eldest gods. the prophecy said hero’s soul cursed blade shall reap. he has ample reason to believe that he’ll die on his sixteenth birthday. that he’ll never get a future.
it looms. all he can do is train and wait. standby mode activate.
he goes to war. he leads his camp against an army, fights to save his city, the world, the campers. kills a titan, makes a hurricane, destroys a bridge. fights, and fights, and fights until the moment comes. until he’s realizing he’s been wrong. he’s not the hero. he doesn’t need to die.
and when it’s all said and done, Percy doesn’t know what to do with himself anymore. he’d been prepared to die to save the world. that was his whole plan. how is he supposed to keep going? what is he supposed to do with this future that he’d been certain he wouldn’t have? he has so many options and possibilities and choices open to him now. how overwhelming must that be?
