#16: The Transformers Curse

There was a period in childhood where the fear of randomly bursting into flames felt weirdly plausible. No warning signs, no cause—just instant human torch status while minding your business watching Transformers. It didn’t help that TV specials and tabloids hyped it like it was the next big epidemic.

You’d sit there, hyper-aware of your body heat, thinking, Is this it? Is this how it starts? Amazingly, our brains latched onto the most dramatic, least likely scenarios. Meanwhile, we never once feared stepping on a Lego barefoot.