Just Another Guy

Cogito ergo sum, a philosopher once wrote. Supposedly, if we forget all assumptions, hypothesis, theories and input from our (notoriously misleading) senses, that's the only thing we can know with absolutely certainty. I however, for a time, was not sure even of that. No, was not just because I hadn't yet heard that quote, though I hadn't. I, for a time, was not sure I could think.

Every person receives basic education from their parents, after they are born. This is common knowledge. Every person has an innate perception that they can think, how they should feel at diverse situations. How to hate, how to care, how to speak, however rudimentary, how to smile. I had nothing of this. Not because I dodn't have parents, though I dodn't, but because I wasn't born.

Some day - I'm not sure when, since I had no concept a of time back then - I just realized I existed. I was beside a road, that I remember well. It was not such a grand occasion though, there was no beam of divine light, no earthquakes or volcanic eruptions. I remember to be standing at the time, then a thought flashed in my head, almost instinctively, "Hey, I'm standing here," not exactly in this words.

I didn't know that was a thought then, I didn't know how I did that, I didn't know who or what I was. I didn't know what "being" meant, I knew no words. My thoughts were in a purely instinctual level. Until today, I still cannot explain how I come to be, all I know is that, from that moment on, I was.

Proofreading the words I just wrote, I realize that perhaps I was a bit misleading. My readers probably think I am some kind of aberration of nature, an animal, a beast, or perhaps a talking tree. A creature of legend, even! No, my overimaginative readers, I am not. I'm just like many of your kind. Perhaps a little larger, perhaps a little faster, but not superhuman. If you ever met me walking down the street, and I waved at you, you'd probably wave me back. Unless you were in a particularly grumpy mood that day.

That being said, I am, at least in part, an aberration of nature. Whatever made me be, nature did not like it one bit. Critters, and even larger animals, are naturally wary in my presence, yes, even humans, but only marginally, in a primal, unconscious level. Insects and rats flee from me (which I don't usually complain about, I have do a slight natural resistance to pain, but I certainly would dislike being annoyed by mosquitoes every night).

My human appearance was a boon. I could come and go in your society at will. In the beginning, I thought that your kind was also my kind. I beat up one of you and stole your clothes to bend in. I listened to your speech and mimicked the sounds, I mimicked your movements, and tried to fraternize. I was tolerated at first, and shunned at last. I believe I wrote the wariness was unconscious, and you must be confused now. Well, my dear friend, don't be. If you read very carefully, you'll notice that I never wrote your kind actually overcame their primal fear toward me. Not most of them, at least.

From that time on I observed your society carefully, from a distance. I didn't know, at the time, that it was only a natural reaction for your kind to fear me. To hate me. I thought I was doing something wrong, so I watched. I watched people coming up and down the street, each of them in a completely different way, but all of them similarly.