When I was young I was afraid of many things. Even music dat sounded sp00ky was enough to keep me awake at night. I’d genuinely get stressed when I hear the certain notes of certain songs. But tbf ☝️, I was a very timid child who thought too much…
One of such songs I didn’t like was from The Smashing Pumpkins, called “Thirty-Three”. Nowadays, I dun listen to it cos its not rlly my cup of tea. The lead singer’s oso abit of a weirdo…
But back then things were different.
I didn’t noe abt the song, and have never heard of The Smashing Pumpkins at dat point in my life. I did however, like random Top 10 lists regarding video game topics 👍
While dis exposed me to a lot of kick-ass channels like Screwattack, it oso unfortunately meant dat I was a genuine enjoyer of WatchMojo at one point. Quite embarrassed to admit dat, in hindsight 😞…
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Then one day, a video got suggested to me, by a channel called ZoominGames… or smth like dat…. hang on lemme look it up…
Ok just ur average top 10 (no wait… 5…) list. Interesting stuff…. Hmmmm…. wats dat at number 1?
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Wow, wonder wat kind of game dis is? Lemme google it…
…. ayo wtf, dis was real?? They shot up a school??
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Ye u see, not being born in the US, the idea of a shooting taking place in a school was quite mind-boggling. Granted, dis was oso literally a couple months before Sandy Hook took place (the first school shooting news I rmb hearing abt over here), so it was still a pretty foreign and scary idea to me.
Then in the video, there was a montage within the game, which showed a clip show of the victims’ friends and families reaction, on the day itself. It played alongside a 16-bit rendition of the song Thirty-Three by The Smashing Pumpkins.
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Rlly fked up actly, the tragedy. Oso the game abt the tragedy…
Afterwards, I kept thinking of dat montage. The name Columbine oso stucked wif me. As well as the thought of literal students conducting a mass murder of such calibre, within the school compound. Dat legit sounded stranger than fiction at the time. The photos from the day were equally haunting…
Becos of dat, I’d never listen to the song Thirty-Three the same way. Which I guess isn’t so bad, considering I dun think I wld’ve liked it anyway, lol.
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While I dun feel the same uneasiness hearing it now as I did back when I was 10, I do find myself singing the instrumental bit at the start, whenever I see the number pop up.
In fact, dis whole post was written becos I was passing by a McDonalds, and one of the kiosks had the number tent wif 33 on it. Then I was like 🤔….
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13.08.2026
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