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"I am Nobody – who are you?
Are you Nobody – too?"
-Emily Dickinson

In an almost hidden corner of a page, these short lines caught my eye, in that same, oddly insignificant way that I first laid eyes upon a golf club, the same way I first set my hands on a piano. I moved on to the story I was trying to find for homework, "A Sound of Thunder," but these short words nudged at the edge of my mind, dormant still.

It took me a few years; it was in fact four years later when they resurfaced in my mind, when they pulled together some random vectors of thoughts and resolved them into one, creating somewhat of an epiphany (at least, as much of one as can be expected at the venerable age of seventeen) – I am nobody.

It is a term that engenders much confusion, and not a few raised eyebrows. As the self-termed "cripple" Nancy Mairs noticed, others wince when we use such odd terms to define ourselves. It is not the best of attitudes to take while writing college applications, I grant you, but then, I am neither a burned out, unmotivated sulking teenage specimen, nor an unsuccessful student trying to hide behind a comfortable curtain of anonymity. To be nobody is not to be apathetic, but to be free; Captain Nemo, for example, and the Count of Monte Cristo, realized the freedoms of such a self-image long ago. Under the knowledge that one is free from the complications of fame, pride, and reputation, one can work and contribute as much as possible to the world.

And thus, from this ideal, my goal – I hope in the future to be able to accomplish that which transcends personal achievement, so much so that a personal appellation is unneeded; I hope that I will someday be worthy of the title – Nobody.

Description
"I am Nobody – who are you?
Are you Nobody – too?"
-Emily Dickinson

In an almost hidden corner of a page, these short lines caught my eye, in that same, oddly insignificant way that I first laid eyes upon a golf club, the same way I first set my hands on a piano. I moved on to the story I was trying to find for homework, "A Sound of Thunder," but these short words nudged at the edge of my mind, dormant still.

It took me a few years; it was in fact four years later when they resurfaced in my mind, when they pulled together some random vectors of thoughts and resolved them into one, creating somewhat of an epiphany (at least, as much of one as can be expected at the venerable age of seventeen) – I am nobody.

It is a term that engenders much confusion, and not a few raised eyebrows. As the self-termed "cripple" Nancy Mairs noticed, others wince when we use such odd terms to define ourselves. It is not the best of attitudes to take while writing college applications, I grant you, but then, I am neither a burned out, unmotivated sulking teenage specimen, nor an unsuccessful student trying to hide behind a comfortable curtain of anonymity. To be nobody is not to be apathetic, but to be free; Captain Nemo, for example, and the Count of Monte Cristo, realized the freedoms of such a self-image long ago. Under the knowledge that one is free from the complications of fame, pride, and reputation, one can work and contribute as much as possible to the world.

And thus, from this ideal, my goal – I hope in the future to be able to accomplish that which transcends personal achievement, so much so that a personal appellation is unneeded; I hope that I will someday be worthy of the title – Nobody.