One

One was such a beautiful girl, with perfection beauty and significant presence. She was the carefree girl-next-door type that you could find at any equational party. Being easy-going, One became a factor of all other numbers implicitly. With poise and grace, she was always included as a fundamental part of chains, of series, of sequences and of any finite existent groups. Simple-minded One was so happy with her popularity. Little had she known, she was the lowest valued number in this Natural Number town since Zero had left. 

Out of the blue, she started to realize the hard truth about her true value in this world. She had little contribution to any addition or subtraction. She is worthless in multiply and division. One would always return as One with Power or Root. The worst thing was that she would become Zero under logarithm. One day, One sat alone in the corner of the room full of people, thinking about parties and groups she was in, all would be the same without her. She was not needed as she thought. One was just conveniently being there for no particular reason. She observed other numbers evolving everyday, gaining more values and having purpose in life. What is her life meaning?

Perplexed by thoughts, she went to the Great N, the only non-number livings in this town. Great N was old and wise. He had traveled a long way from his Alphabet Planet through different worlds to get to this small town. He told her that if she could not be happy living a minimal life in this town, she should go to other cities and other worlds. There could be opportunities in those far away lands. So on the road went One, a little small town girl with troubled mind and a pure hope to find her true value. 

After days, she reached the Cardinal Number town, where she was treated like a queen. They gave her the diamond crown “st” and made her First. First always won the contests. First never had to go behind anyone in line. First was such a lady as she is the top priority in this town. No list could be formed without her and no counting could start before she came. She was irreplaceable. One was once again so happy living in this town. Little had she known, she was just a fake, pretending to be the queen with the crown “st”, living the life of First. She is One. She is not first. If success came with such price of loosing your true self, then her life would still be meaningless after all. 

Leaving the Cardinal Number town, One continued her journey, wandering from real to unreal realms. One day, in the middle of nowhere, she encountered Zero, who looked even more a lost soul than her. 

• What are you doing here? I thought you are happy in the realm of asymptotic? - One asked with surprise.
• It’s asymptotic realm. There’s no exact value of anything. In such abstract world, no one could really matter, including me. - Some kind of sadness was resonating in his voice.
• But you have infinite power …
• You know, it’s great to be infinity. But in the end, you have to converge, you have to become someone else, not yourself. I want to be my true value, being Zero and being regconized for what I truly do.
• Yeah true, I totally understand your feeling. That’s why I left the Cardinal Number town. 
• So where else could we know now?
• Great N once told me about the Statistics country with rich and powerful Probabilities cities. We could find some opportunities at the Binomial one.
• Please no. I have just been there. Of course there are a lot of other Ones and Zeros, but they are working like robots in Trials factory without no one really care if the person is One or Zero. All statisticians care only about final results in the Bernoulli one.
• Then what would you suggest?
• Well, as you mentioned Great N, a thought has just crossed my mind. Why don’t we make the reverse journey of his, travelling to the Alphabet Planet. We might be valuable there.
• That’s such a brilliant idea. I could be I and you could be O. And since we will be vowels, we will be in every sentence literally.

With bright hope sparkling in their eyes, Zero and One went to the end of the Number world, to magical Mathematics bridges that linked between different planets from both Social and Natural Sciences Universes. A professor was standing there as a gate keeper.

• Where are you two planning to go? - The professor asked them.
• We want to go to the Alphabet Planet. - One answered with a trembling voice.
• But you are Numbers. You cannot do anything there.
• We believe we could be  vowels I and O and … - Zero quickly said.
• Haha, such a naive thought. You could only be I and O in teen code languages that young hipsters use to text each other. But you would never make it to an academic essay or a formal report.
• Why not? We have the similar appearance?
• That was decades ago when bad handwriting on papers could confused us. But now, we are living in the modern era, everything were digitalized and letters are typed and printed so you can never …
• Hold on, what did you just say? - One stopped the professor.
• Letters are typed and printed?
• No, before that?
• We are living in the modern era, everything were digitalized?
• That’s it. Zero, did you hear that? It’s the Digital Planet.
• OMG, I get it now, Zero. That’s the place for us. That’s where we could still be One and Zero and can have any value we want. We could be numbers, letters, symbols and so much more.
• You are right. New technology is changing Universes everyday. Young people like you guys should be in the change and devote your valuable life to meaningful programs that transform our livings. - The professor smiled happily.
• Please, let us go to the Digital Planet.
• I can open the gate to the Digital Planet for you now. But the rest is up to your hard work there. Are you ready?
• Yes, we are ready!

The End.

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P/S: Happy ending will eventually come to Zero and One and to all of those who dare to travel out of their comfort zones and seek meanings in life at places. My happy ending is still far away, but at least I can see it now ♥