The X-Factor(Very Short Story)

[Claus]

OoC; This is a super short story I wrote for college applications this year. Basically I sent this to any college that emailed me offering free applications (if I wasn't too keen on going to said school). What do you think? (Don't worry it's lighthearted):P

To this date, humanity has been relatively successful in answering the questions it poses (or so we think). However, there has always been an obvious exception; a sore thumb among the many mysteries that haunt us. “Find x.” This simple riddle has humbled our greatest minds ever since it first came about. Thus I have brought it upon myself, and dedicated my life, to tackling this tantalizing enigma.

I first encountered this controversial letter in the third grade. They started teaching us basic arithmetic, slowly chiseling the knowledge required for this task into our innocent minds. It started with addition and subtraction, became multiplication, morphed into division, and finally evolved into elementary algebra. “4=X*2” they asked. Back then it seemed simple; the world is black and white in a child’s eyes. However this was an illusion brought on by naivety and youth.

Time went on, I matured, and reality gradually revealed itself. It became all too obvious that the SS (school system) had been molding us our entire lives for a sole purpose; to find the ever evasive X. Normally such a sobering truth is hard to swallow, but I embraced it. They were no longer the only ones pursuing this cross shaped gem.

I hid among their institutionalized masses, incognito and enlightened. My next move was clear; I needed to find the true form of X. For years I’ve searched. Even now, though I’ve escaped the SS’s domain, I look for the answer. Perhaps I’ll never find my prize, perhaps nobody ever will, but I refuse to give up. If I’m asked “Did you find X?” I’ll simply answer not yet…