As I sat near the busy street, observing life around me as usual, I watched hundreds of people go about their daily business. There are many others like me, all constantly watching and waiting, receiving no glances or notice. Many people don’t see everything there is to see, but that is simply because not many people take the time to observe. I, however, do see everything that I can see. It’s easy to see everything when that’s all you do.

Watching people go by, I notice all the time that they are all the same, much like my colleagues and I. Pressed into a specific shape, made for one purpose, and forgotten quickly when replaced. We are no different, at least not where it really counts. The only real difference is their arrogance, their sense of self-entitlement. We all started from the same place, at the same level, and will return to that someday.

There is one beacon of light in all the blandness. One woman, relatively new and rather young, caught my attention on a seemingly average day. Clearly doing what she wanted to, setting a bar of independence and originality that others refused to meet. I wondered for a long time about the woman, about what she did, where she went every day, why she was the only one who stood out among the sea of nondescript populace.

The truth of the matter was grim. No one was brave enough. I could see it in their faces, and in their eyes. I immediately understood the vast majority of the human race, their fear of being singled out or straying from the pack. They were all bred to think the same, act the same, and look the same, and to criticize those who thought differently. I never had a choice to be anything but a concrete sidewalk square. Then why, with all of their potential and opportunities, would humans simply give it up to fear? I couldn’t understand. I never would, as I continued to stare up at simple, boring, average people who were too afraid to be human.