I Know the Secret

          There are moments in my life when I can say that I have felt an overwhelming feeling of wanting to punch something in frustration or else have had the feeling of being extremely happy to the point where I begin to annoy the people around me. I’m sure you’ve felt it too – we’re all human. We all feel emotion.
          Despite all those memorable times, there is one time in my life when I experienced something that I think very few people have experienced or at least would admit to experiencing. There really isn’t an emotion to go with this feeling that I can pin point. Enlightened just sounds so corny, but it’s not quite the term I’m looking for anyway.
          Read what I have written here carefully. You might miss something. I’m about to explain one of the world’s greatest mysteries to you. Are you ready for it? Here it is: Cogito ergo sum. Confused? I was for a long time, though recently the enormity of those three little Latin words finally sank into my brain. I think, therefore I am. I didn’t come up with that theory – no, no. That was Descartes. But what I am about to tell you is when I finally came to be sure that I existed and the world was much greater place than I could even imagine.
          The first thing I should explain is that when I’m home alone, I have the tendency to talk to myself. A lot. I talk to myself like there’s another person with me in the house. Now that I have admitted to the level of my insanity, I shall begin the story.
          One lazy Sunday afternoon, I found myself home alone with nothing to do, so I decided to pass the time doing what every teenager with a lot of time on their hands would do: watch television. It was three in the afternoon, I was still in my pajamas and I was having a marathon of Veronica Mars episodes and eating sherbet straight from the container. Yes, ladies and gentlemen! This is exactly what a picture of your teenage philosopher would look like!
          I had finished disc 4 and when I was taking the disc out of the DVD player and putting in disc 5, I commented to myself that this was my favourite disc because it contained my favourite episode. Abruptly, I stopped what I was doing. I thought, Why am I talking to myself? And I answered aloud, “Because I exist.” I paused in thought and looked at myself in the small mirror that happened to be facing me on my desk. “Because I exist.” I stated once again, looking at my face in a completely new light; I had just seen the real me that was tucked away somewhere, just begging to be let out. I think, therefore I exist. Therefore when I talk to myself, I am indeed not talking to no one, I am talking to someone.
          All at once, I felt reassured and terrified. Reassured because I am truly alive and there is no better feeling in the world that feeling alive. Terrified because…well I’m not sure why. I think it’s the same scary feeling you get when you have the feeling of overwhelming joy because you don’t want it to go away.
          So, ladies and gentlemen, that is the secret to life. Do you get it? No? Think on it a bit. It’ll come to you. Just ponder each morning I think therefore I am and it’ll come to you. Even if you have doubts about everything else in the world, this is the one truth that cannot be denied. Otherwise, why am I even writing this?