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control
​
bryanne ochir, february 2026

Every day is the same. You wake up, look in the mirror, step on the glass, read the number, type it in, and calculate what you are. 
The larger the number, the weaker you are. Control is key. You need control; no one likes someone who’s out of control. Control your life. 
Control.
Control. 
Control.
You wake up. Do your routine. The number went up. Sigh, start the timer. Watch the timer. 18, 20, 24, 36, 48, 60, 72. the longest you can go. 
You stop the timer. You took control. Now what’s there to do? Stuff it. Stuff it all. Keep going. Because you don’t have control. You never had control. You only want it.
control. your. life.
You’ll keep it up. You’ll keep the cycle going. You say you want it to end, but you don’t really. You can’t be normal. You’ll never be normal.
500, -0.3, 700, +0.1, 19.6.
0, -1.4. 0, -2.7, 18.7.
300, -3.2. 153, -5.4, 17.
17 is the good number. 
17 means you’re in control.
You must be in control.
Control yourself.
CONTROL YOUR LIFE.


Picture

bryanne ochir

Picture

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  • Home
    • LGBTQ+ Resources
    • Student Businesses
  • Meet Us
    • Socials >
      • Google Forms
  • This Month
    • BALM Radio >
      • September 2025
      • October 2025
      • November 2025
      • February 2026
    • Op-Eds >
      • The Only Thing More Powerful Than Hate is Love
      • Is it Possible to Separate Art From the Artist?
      • Take Things Seriously
      • The Monsters WE Make
      • The Pressure to be in Love
      • The Black Alternative Experience
      • Know Your Rights: What To Do Around Ice
    • CREATIVE WRITING >
      • No ICE In My Drink
      • 10 Inches Taller
      • Sunflower
      • * **** ***
      • Solely For Living
      • The Lady in All Red
      • Blood-Covered "Love"
      • Deathbott Chapter 5
      • Control
      • Refuse to Watch
      • Sugar on my Tongue
      • Die Your Daughter
    • Artist Corner >
      • Dog.
      • When you have a bat, everything looks like a ball.
      • Deathbott Character Art
    • Media Reviews >
      • Iron Lung Review
      • Heartless to Heated: Heated Rivalry
      • Night In the Woods Analysis: The Hole At The Center Of Everything
    • Sports Panel >
      • Boys Swim: Senior Highlight
      • Girls Swim: Senior Highlight
      • Girls Basketball: Senior Highlight
  • Featured Article
    • The Only Thing More Powerful Than Hate is Love
    • Know Your Rights: What To Do Around Ice
  • Teacher's Corner
    • Teachers Corner: DeVaul
    • Teachers Corner: Ejzak: How to Combat chatGPT? Embrace the Same Anti-Authoritarian Teaching Practices We Should’ve Been Doing All Along
    • Teacher's Corner: Mr. Hazzard's Love Letter To Brooks
    • Teacher's Corner: Gordon
    • Teacher's Corner: Wilde
    • Teacher's Corner: David
    • Teacher's Corner: Ejzak
    • Teacher's Corner: Rago
  • Archive
    • 9.25 >
      • Two
      • Young and Pretty
      • Chimeras: Growing Up in Majority-White and Majority-Black Schools
      • My Favorite Color Used To Be Pink
      • Good Mother
      • Cancel the Mouse: Why New Disney Sucks
      • Is Hope the New Punk Rock?: Superman Movie Review
    • 10.25 >
      • Ignorance Is PURE Bliss
      • The Subjectivity of Creativity: How Wrongful Interpretation is Dangerous
      • Petty Games
      • If You're So Wise, Why Do You Come Off So Passionless?
      • How Animal Farm by George Orwell Still Speaks Today
      • How To Train Your Hyper-Realistic Live Action Reboot
      • Absense of August
      • Art fight Collection
    • 11.25 >
      • The Overconsumption Cycle
      • My Experience Being Painfully Insecure.
      • An Age-Old Question
      • They Hate Us Cause They Ain't Us
      • Transgressions Against the Father
      • Watership Down
      • The Black Phone 2: More is Less
      • How Fish Became Gods
    • 1.26 >
      • The Concept of One Individual
      • Police & Black Americans—The Battle for Civil Rights
      • White Hair Braiders
      • The Dust Under My Bed
      • Popular (Wicked)
      • “Carpe Diem, Seize The Day.” - A Media Review On Dead Poets Society
      • They Could've Made Anything, but They Chose This Book