I grew up in a rural town way in the middle of nowhere. I figured nobody mentioned it online because it was normal for them too, but when I went off to college I learned that what happened in my town wasn’t normal at all.

Every year or two, we would all get what we called “The Circles” - we would all become obsessed with circles. Drawing them, looking for them, seeking them out, collecting things shaped like circles. Obsessed with drawing them as perfectly as possible, obsessed with finding the smoothest, roundest objects. It would last for a week or so. All we can talk about are circles. And then, one day, we wake up, and it’s gone. It’s been like this as long as anyone can remember, and we think nothing of it. You never realize how many circles you encounter on a daily basis until you are looking for them. dinner plates, the rim of streetlights, the rim of your drinking glass, manhole covers, car wheels, coasters, clocks, some necklaces, the links in some chains. But during that event, some things would become circles that weren’t before.

I remember one time, there was one of us that didn’t get the circles, for reasons we don’t fully know. His name was Tommy, I think (ironic considering he has an O in his name), and he lived down the street from me. Man, I remember we all thought he was crazy for not being into circles, and a lot of the chatter around town was about Tommy and his non-circle ways. Tommy took it pretty well, though, and began to record the goings-on from an outsider’s point of view to show us later.

I always chalked it up to confirmation bias, but it turns out there were more circles than before. Clouds would arrange themselves in this ring shape above the town. Leaves would blow in circles like normal, but then… kept going, without any dust devils to propel them. Vines and plants would curl branches and leaves into circles, pets would run in loops all day in the yard. The centers of puddles left by rain would dry up, but the outer edges would remain wet. Tommy dumped out a bag of dice onto a table, and they all landed in a ring pattern. The letter O seemed to just… stand out more, visually. Maybe it was because we were looking for it, but I feel like it was brighter than normal, maybe.

Looking back on it, it was just the weirdest thing, isn’t it? Whenever I plan to visit home, I try to make sure I am not going during The Circles, so I don’t have to be the one in Tommy’s position; how awkward it must be to be the only one not going mad.