Are You Real?
By: Author Unknown

I assume that you have heard of the story the Velveteen 
Rabbit. If you have not, it is the story of a little 
stuffed bunny rabbit who dreams of being Real. To his 
owner, a small boy, the rabbit is perceived to be Real, 
because the Boy loves him so much. He gets older and 
shabbier but is content with knowing the Boy believes he 
is a Real rabbit. When the boy falls ill with scarlet fever 
and the velveteen rabbit must be thrown away, a fairy comes 
and tells him that because of the boy's love for him, he 
could now be turned into a physically real rabbit.

Why I mention this tale I explain now: I am a junior in 
high - school, and one day during my semester exams I was 
rather tired and depressed. It had been a long, wearying 
week and I needed to talk with someone, anyone... just to 
get my mind off of the tests, which I was sure I had done 
poorly on.

So, after school, I walked down to the student personnel 
services office, and sat down with one of the counselors. 
He was a real blast to hang out with, and every student 
liked him. When we began to talk, I realized my heart 
really wasn't in the conversation. My mind wandered back 
to the exams... to a doctors appointment I had the week 
before -- anything but the cheerful subject we were 
speaking of.

He paused in conversation and looked at me. We began 
talking now of more serious subjects: a few health 
problems that I have, a fight I had with my mother the 
day before -- things that were bothering me. After a few 
minutes of this, he asked me a very strange question.

"Do you think you are real?"

I was taken aback. What could he possibly meant by that? I 
pressed him for an explanation, and what he said was 
basically, he was hearing all of the things that had an 
impact on me, but really didn't hear about things that I 
was taking part in or making a difference in. He likened 
it to the story of the Velveteen Rabbit: did i think that 
I was real to the people around me, and most importantly 
to myself.

To my surprise, I found it very hard to answer his question 
instantly or honestly. A few months later, and I am still 
thinking about it. It made me wonder that, if I couldn't 
tell if I was "real" or not, what other people believed 
about me.

It makes you think: Do you have enough of an effect on the 
world around you as you would like to?