Like many great things, Second Death Magazine started, initially, as therapy homework. I have this unrelenting fear of death. I’m going to die, and I spent my life calculating every little detail of my life to avoid death. It’s scary, uncontrollable, and happens to every single person to ever live. And then it hit me; just accept it. You can’t run from death, and after reading Smoke Gets In Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty, I realized that death doesn’t have to be scary, or something to run from. There is beauty in the end of life, and power in trying to make peace with that certainty. So, I dove deep into research. You can’t know something unless you know something. “Fuck it and chuck it.” is the phrase my therapist has said more than anything, and it’s that willingness to throw caution to the wind and dive deep into the things that scare me. And if this fear was true for me, it was true for a large number of people. Nearly 42% of people fear death to some degree. With nearly half of all people having this same fear, my goal was to help people be less scared (and more prepared) of inevitability, because death WILL happen. I had this grand idea to send a cool new death-related story out to people’s email once a weeklike some macabre mailing list. But, ideas grew and grew, and Second Death Magazine was born. And with enough hope, we can change the perception of death, and how we handle it. And truly, none of this would be possible without all of the support I’ve gotten on this magazine’s release, but most of all, I want to thank Jenn. You have been the single most healing person to enter my life, and this magazine, and all of its potential success wouldn’t have happened without you. So, to answer the question, I am The Archivist, someone who’s goal is to chronicle the concept of death, and my identity, in the grander scheme of things, isn’t all that important.