Achieving Serenity

Social Serenity

Finding your tribe

I always feared the thought of being an outcast, completely shunned by the tribe. I have spent lifetimes in isolation reminiscing on my existence, and my overall hatred of people only to find out I'd much rather spend my days actively socializing. Whenever I would truly get to know a group of people, I felt completely secure and my negative emotions would seem to dissipate without me even noticing.

My new friends and I decided to play some twisted version of Truth or Dare and I started to shake; I considered making up an excuse to avoid the game. I didn't want them to think warily of me, so I reluctantly maintained my presence.

"Jacob- Truth or Dare, buddy?" my friend Mike spoke up.

"Dare," I replied, concealing my nervousness.

"Jacob, I dare you to use the time machine to go back to before your grandfather had children, and shoot him in the face."

I couldn't use the time machine. Every fucking dare they came up with had to do with their precious, newly purchased time machine. What was the big deal about traveling through time?

"Do you guys have any non-time machine related dares?" I was on the defense.

"Come on, man! It's hilarious; everyone knows it's impossible to kill your grandfather before he has kids. You shoot him, and the bullets just deflect off his face! It doesn't even hurt him, and he's all like 'what?!' Classic!"

"Okay, truth," I say, figuring now is as good as time as any to open up with these guys. I pray they give me an easy one.

"Jacob, you say migrated here from the west. Where are you really from?"

I couldn't lie. Whenever I tell a lie, I suffer instant death. I could run away right now. But I know how that story ends.

I sighed. "It's a long and extremely weird tale."

"Dude, tell us!" was the basic consensus from the group.

"I'm from the future. In five-thousand years, I commit a crime. I have a horrific curse; each time I die, I wake up as a newborn baby with all my same memories. I've lived millions and millions of past lives and at the time I was going insane and came extremely close to nuking the entire planet. I wanted to end humanity to put my curse to a final halt. I was caught and arrested and sent back in time. They exacerbated my curse; if I ever use a time machine again, I am met with death and each time I tell a lie, my heart completely stops."

I looked down as I prayed my new friends accepted me.

"That is awesome! How did you get nukes?!" Mike exclaimed.

Acceptance. I had finally found serenity- a group of people who took me in as the person I was and made me feel like I belonged. It's common I tell the story and am deemed crazy, and several lives I spent institutionalized.

Today I am no longer struggling with my existential crisis. I accept my immortality and cherish every moment I spend. I am truly blessed to have found my tribe in this lifetime.