“What you must know about life,” I began, unsure I could pull this off, “is that you must live it by and for yourself.” I paused, that’s what you do for dramatic effect, right?

“You should not give your life meaning through others. Through the way they treat you, what they say to you, or ever worse- what you think they think of you.”

Practice what you preach, you hypocrite. Why was I so concerned to make sure they believed me? Yes, I knew I had travelled back in time a few centuries at least and I was supposed to be a philosopher giving this speech about the meaning of life in this century, but no one knew I was a fake. I could tell them much much more, but I wanted to be believable. So I strove to find acceptance through the assessment of the crowd’s faces.

“Yes we care, of course, about how we’re perceived by others. And we must care to coexist in a society. But we shouldn’t let others be the sole force driving forward our feeling of having a meaningful life.”

Someone from the crowd said something. Something that sounded clear, but jumbled and unintelligible to me. That’s when I realized their blank stares didn’t mean they were deep in thought. They meant they were very fucking confused and probably didn’t speak English (at least not modern English).

A few other people mumbled other things. Were they… pissed? Annoyed? Or maybe even, scared? I started to look for an exit I could run to.