CYRUS VS. PURPOSE

When I was about seven years old I sat down in front of my first computer screen after a reading class on the second day of school. As I mentioned before I despised school and all things that pertained to learning around others. It felt like a whole drag to be around people. All I wanted to do is watch TV at home. Staring at a screen for hours felt amazing, even when my sister would clown me and say that I needed more friends I did not care, TV was my only friend at that young age. But that fated day when we got our computer classes I saw a computer as a smaller boxed version of a TV which was not controlled by a remote.

That was the beginning of my love story with computers. I loved computer classes the most and I remember the joy in my mother's eyes when I told her that I wanted to join a school club. At the time my mother could not afford to get a computer for the family-like most households so I spent hours after school at the computer lab and I loved it. It was the TV which was controlled by your hand. The internet was even better because I had access to so much information about anything. I could watch videos of the shows that I missed when my mother would make me sleep early. It felt like it was a power that I had in my hands.

After a year or so of discovering computers and obsessing over them, my mother bought me a second-hand computer for Christmas. I would never forget that day when I saw the gift and I felt my heart throbbing with joy. I almost cried. It was something I had always dreamed of all the time and I always wanted it. From there it was hours and hours of learning more and more about it and how it worked and function and along the journey, I learned about coding, artificial intelligence, and finally how everyday technology could be optimized using all of these things such as machine learning and programming robots.

It was a cliche way that so many people got into technology and its possibilities but one thing that separated me from the rest is my pure obsession with it. My pure excitement and rush I would get every time I would finish a task or when I figured out something that stumped so many other programmers and developers. It was not a matter of defeating them or being better than them but it was a matter that I could do it. That a computer had unlimited possibilities beyond even our human comprehension and how much information it could take in without ever crashing or forgetting. It surpassed all of mankind's greatest human weakness and that was magical. A computer could speak to a human and tell it to use it to its fullest potential and that is where I came in. My purpose in life was to make sure that I was using it to its fullest potential that there was nothing you could not accomplish as long as you were as smart as a computer to use it to its peak.

Flash forward a few years later and all I could see before my eyes were the screen and tasks before me. It was the power of problem-solving and thinking like a computer. Thinking like a computer was not a simple task but it was something I had strived to achieve. Just like before the hidden technique was to have a blank slate and slowly know how you would solve a problem like a child.Just like the saying that says sometimes the hardest problems have the simplest solutions was what was the driving force to make me think like a computer.

The first levels were as easy as two plus two. It needed no thought process at all. It was reading the instructions and typing out a simple code to accomplish the task. It was simple but every time I did something it felt exhilarating. I could feel the blood pump throughout my body and veins. It was like being given a challenge that was not life or death but it was still exciting to do just for the sake and it made me feel excited. It had been a long while since I just sat down and coded just for the sake of coding. Even though I was living and I had a hidden agenda at that time I could forget about all those extra details and I could just focus on being immersed in the game rather than the other reasons why I was doing it.

At some point, I could just feel my brain, eyes, and fingers synching up to the point I was using them in unison without stopping. Even though I could feel my fingers starting to cramp up it was okay since we were doing something I considered important and fun. I was breezing through the levels even when I would make something that would not work I would just delete everything and start all over again. It felt like a race and I could not stop what I was doing or thinking. By that time my mind and body had drifted from their initial place and I felt like I was floating in my world. It was immersive to the point I felt like the hands of a God were stretched out to me, I climbed on it and then he wrapped his fingers around to give me a godlike experience which was beyond humans description.

It was not joy or excitement anymore it felt like I went numb and I was escaping all the realities of life every single second. Every time I added a new line, every time a read through instruction, and every time I would think of a solution. It felt like I gained a euphoric experience. I was draining all the negative energy into solving any issue that would come up, even when the tasks became more and more difficult it made me want to solve it more and more. Second, by the second I was pulled deeper and deeper into the game. Glenn did know how to make gameplay that would be addictive. I was now addicted to defeating each and each level.

I wanted the feeling to last forever. I enjoyed the feeling of complete power and control over all the situations and tasks. It compensated for all the times that I had felt like a worthless waste of space in the world. For all the times that I had failed Miranda, for all the times I had o make selfish choices for all the times that I let myself feel like a failure. For once I could do something that would compensate for all of that. I was the one in power and I was reigning over one of the only things that had accepted me since day one. Computers were the one thing that would allow me to talk to them it allowed me to ask them for permission to gain all of the power I had at that moment. It allowed me to use it for storage, to follow patterns, to use the patterns effectively, and once it allows you to use it solves the rest for you. You have entered the mutual agreement once you enter the run key and the rest is up to it.

Just as I was at my state of total dominance I had completely lost count of all the tasks I had done and all I was doing more tasks and I had forgotten why I was even doing all these tasks. As I finished one of the tasks that seemed to take me three different tries to finish. A test suddenly popped up on the screen that said

"Congratulations you have finished all you're tasks new tasks will be given tomorrow at 6 PM PST.'

With annoyingly bright flashing colors that were blinding.

'huh'I said looking at the screen realizing that the fun was over and I was back to my powerless life.

"That was amazing sir," Patrick said coming up to me holding a bottle of water.

Suddenly my body felt like it had come back from a numbing shot and I could feel all the fatigue gitting all parts of my body all of a sudden. I could feel my hands starting to cramp up and my head started aching. I felt dehydrated and I wanted food. My legs had that uncomfortable numbing feeling when you let them sit in a bad position for too long. It felt like I had descended from heaven speed earth and went straight to hell. I grabbed the water bottled from Patrick and I drank almost all of the water like a lunatic.

"Thanks," I said handing him the now empty bottle.

I slowly came back to the situation I was in and it felt like a flood of knowledge and finally, it hit me that I was live as I looked at the camera staring at me. It was weird to think that everyone was looking at me when I was in such a heavenly state. I wondered if I looked like a complete psychopath or it was just someone typing away on his computer without saying a single word.

"What was the time?"I asked Patrick.

"You have spent a total of six hours four minutes and thirty seconds."

"Really? I thought I would spend less time on the game. That is embarrassing."I said disappointed by my won skills.

"Sir the best score currently was not nearly as close as you. That was Godlike. The previous best time was seventeen hours and forty-four minutes. You spent much less of time ."

I looked at him surprised that I had actually had a good time. The concept of time escaped me in the middle of playing the game to the point I did not know that six hours could feel like hours and some minutes. I looked at Patrick still confused and all my bodily functions acting up. I smiled at my timing but still felt like I could have done better to challenge XR. XR's timing must half of mine and now I had posed a great challenge.

"People are still watching sir do you have something to say, "Patrick said pointing at the cameras with a huge and still nervous smile on his face.

"Oh," I said fumbling around and thinking of something to say that would be provocative to the almighty XR. Unfortunately, that was when my anxiety wanted to act up and all my thoughts disappeared.

"Just say that I pose a challenge to anyone who can beat my time," Gleen whispered from the side of the room. I never even noticed he was in the room.

I looked over at him and he was smiling wider than usual. It was a good sign that maybe it did do something big.

"I pose a challenge to all the participants to see who can beat my time by this Friday, "I said pointing at the camera hoping that I did not look like a big goofball saying that statement.

XR was challenged and I prayed that it would lure him out of his shadow..