What Is Life?

What if the world doesn’t exist like we think it does? What if we’re not really here? What if none of this is real? What if.
There are a lot of theories as to how we exist, if we even do exist at all. We may just be an imagination in something greater than us, something more powerful. Maybe this is all just a dream, when we die we’re just waking up. Some people may believe fate just controls everything. That everything happens for a reason, everything is already planned out.
What’s the truth? What really is this thing that we call life? I want to know the truth, if we really exist or if this is all just a figment of our imagination. Who are we? Where are we? Do we exist?

“Alec, I’ve been thinking a lot lately.” I say.
“About what?” He responds.
“Well, I’ve just been wondering about life I guess.”
“What about life?” He asks, confused at what I’m getting at.
I think about this for a minute, then finally respond, “Well, do we really exist? Is this all real? Or are we just someone’s imagination?”
He looks at me and frowns. “Bailey, none of that stuff is real. God created the earth. God is the reason we are here.”
I glare at him. “Whatever.” I mumbled before turning around and walking away. I left school alone, normally I walk with Alec, but I was fed up with him. Can’t he have just a little imagination?
I get home to find the house empty. I guess I’ll start my homework so I won’t have anything to do later. I think as I walk upstairs toward my bedroom. I open my backpack and pull out my books. I decided to start with history. Read a chapter in the book and answer a bunch of stupid questions on it. Completely pointless, not to mention boring.
I lay on the floor and start. As I’m reading I can feel my eyes getting heavy. It’s getting harder and harder to keep them open. I don’t even understand what I’m reading anymore. I’ll just shut my eyes for a second, then finish my homework. Just for a minute…

I wake up and look around, where am I? I turn around in a circle. There’s nothing here, it’s completely empty. “Where am I?” I ask out loud, confusion and terror in my voice.
“Ah, Bailey. Nice of you to come visit.” I hear a voice say from behind me. I quickly turn around to see the source of the echoing voice in the completely white and empty room.
“Who are you?” I ask, looking at this man that I’ve never seen before. He looks like a man, but there’s just something about him that makes him look fake, not human.
“It doesn’t matter who I am Bailey, all that matters is that you’re here.” He said. This seems like it should be creepy, I should be freaked out. There’s just something about him that makes me feel safe, like I could trust this complete stranger.
“Where am I?”
“Let me show you something.” He turned around and walked through a door that appeared out of nowhere.
“But, where --?”
“Follow me Bailey, and all your questions will be answered.” I didn’t say anything and followed the strange man without saying another word. We walked into a room, bigger than the last, much bigger. This room, however, was the opposite of empty. There were computers on both sides of us with a walkway in the middle. It looked like a giant hallway that stretched on forever.
“What are --?”
“Bailey.” He said and I knew that meant I should just stop talking and let him show me why I was here.
He started heading down the hallway. I was still standing there in amazement. “Follow.” He said, and I obeyed. I hurried behind him and tried to catch up. Once I caught up, it was hard to keep up. He was tall, he had long legs. His steps were much larger than possible for mine. The only noise in this hallway-type room was the echoing of our footsteps. After about five minutes of walking he stopped and turned to the computer on his right. “Here.” He stated simply.
“What?” I asked.
“This,” He said, indicating the computer, “This is your life.”
“My what?” I asked dumbfounded.
“This computer stores your life. From beginning to end.”
“My life?” I asked, confused. He nodded his head. “From beginning to end?”
“Yes.”
“End?” I asked, still not understanding what was going on.
“Yes.”
“The parts that haven’t happened yet?”
“This computer stores everything about you, every conversation you’ve ever had, even every thought you’ve ever had.” I stared at him in amazement. “Your life is planned out from the very beginning. Everything is planned out. You don’t have a say in anything that happens to you. And this --”
I cut him off. “You’re saying, this is how we live? I bunch of computers plan out our lives in advance and we’re just some sort of computer game?”
“It’s not a computer game, this is very serious business.” He said, taken aback.
“I can’t believe this.” I look down at the computer that is my life. “So what happens if a computer breaks down?” I asked
“Well, then” he hesitated, “Then you die.”
“Wow. But if dying isn’t in your planned life, how can that happen?”
“Not everything works out as planned.”
“Well it sure seems like it.” I say, still staring at my computer in amazement. After a couple minutes of silence I asked, “Can I, well, see how my life is going to turn out?”
“Do you really want to do that? Your life would be pointless after this because you know everything that will ever happen to you.”
“Yeah, I know. I just wanna see.” I say anxiously.
“Think about it Bailey.” He said plainly. I stood there and really thought about it. If I find out how my life is going to turn out, it will be like he said, pointless. It’ll be like watching a movie you’ve seen before, you already know what’s going to happen. How it’s going to end. Maybe I don’t want to see how it ends. I don’t want to know when or how I die. “I think I’ll be better off not knowing my future. Let it be a surprise.”
“Good choice Bailey.” He said, smiling at me.
“Wait. You knew I was going to say that. You knew we were going to have that conversation.” I said, figuring it out. He knows what I’m going to say, before I say them.
He nodded, “Yes Bailey. You are correct.”

The light was blinding when I opened my eyes. I could feel that my cheek was damp with drool. I picked my head up off my history book and dried my face with my sleeve. “Ew” I mumbled to myself looking at the drool now on my sleeve. Then I remembered what had just happened. What had just happened? I wonder to myself. Then my mom opened the door to my room. “Hey Bailey, have a nice nap?” She asked with a laugh. She must have gotten home a while ago. I wonder how long I’ve been asleep.
“Uh, yeah.” I said. “Mom, I just had the weirdest dream.” Now that I’m saying it loud I really start to think about it. Was it really just a dream? Or was that real? Could that have been real?
“What was it about?” She asked.
“I finally understand life.” I said. And as I said it I knew that what just happened hadn’t been a dream. It was real. I was really there. I knew this was real, it hadn’t just been a dream. I could never tell anyone. No one would believe me. They’d think I was crazy. This is part of life.