Type ‘2012’ into Google and you’ll get more than 200,000 results that read ‘The End of the World,’ ‘How to Survive Armageddon,’ or my personal favorite, ‘The year that everyone will die.’ Rumors about 2012 have been thrown around since Mayan times. With the movie ‘2012’, premiering in theaters this Friday, the speculations are bound to get even worse.

The Mayan ‘Long Count’ calendar ends a 5,126-year era on December 21, 2012, the day of the winter solstice. Apparently this equals the death of all mankind. In addition, the sun will be aligned with the Milky Way for the first time in 26,000 years. The energy, electrical waves or the cold could potentially put us in a permanent worldwide blackout (Y2K anyone?).

‘Personally I don’t believe it will happen because there have been so many other similar theories that have never come true,’ Maria Marino, a sophomore magazine journalism major said. ‘But the possibility of it does make me nervous.’

In all honesty, if you’ve ever watched Armageddon Week on the History Channel some of the theories seem pretty legitimate. But let’s be real, between the Middle East, global warming and the economy, I wouldn’t be surprised if we all died next week.

This isn’t the first time there’s been hysteria over the end of the world. Y2K caused quite a panic and many people thought the devil was going to either drown or freeze us all on June 6, 2006 (6/6/06).

‘I definitely believe in 2012,’ said Kevin Oh, a sophomore economics majors. ‘I’ve looked some of this stuff up, especially the Mayans. It’s freaky how good at math they were and how many of their calculations were so accurate. I think that in 2012 either the world will end or Jesus will come.’

Let’s look on the bright side: If we all are going to die in three years, we will have died under the best circumstances. We won’t ever have the chance to make the big money or get married or have kids, but who really wants that anyway. It’s like a blessing in disguise.

We’ll have already experienced all the good stuff (ie. parties, sex) but won’t ever have to deal with the reality of jobs, rent and real, functional relationships compared to random hook ups. I’d be angry right now if I was a high school freshman, never even making it to college, or if I were in my late 20’s. Leaving the world, as a carefree college student is perfect. We’ll probably be so enthralled in college-life that we won’t even realize that world has ended and we’re all dead.

So if you’ve freaking out about 2012: Relax. I have yet to decide if I believe in 2012, but whether it happens or not, we’ll all go through it together.

For a while, I was seriously considering dropping out and traveling the world, but soon realized that if 2012 ended up being a conspiracy theory (Y2K?) I’d be in big trouble. So, stay in school, but live it up, and take comfort in knowing that if we die, we all die together. I’m sure we could throw some pretty sick parties in Hell.

Lauren Tousignant is sophomore communications and rhetorical studies major. She is the opinion editor at The Daily Orange where her columns appear occasionally. She can be reached at letousig@syr.edu .

Published on November 10, 2009 at 12:00 pm