“Have you seen a tree in the metaverse?”

I see you…

I know it is hard to self-realize when your image depends on what others think of you.

Just remember, I see you.

It’s a tense thing. Being tethered to preconceived notions while actively resisting them.

Just remember, I see you.

I also see how you look at them. How your eyes light up in digital space. How these self-starting, self-taught, self-driven kids want for you.

How they’ve optimized digital modes of production to build a reality in your image.

To them, you are as untethered as you always imagined yourself to be.

Just remember, I see you.

You never took me for the kind that needed idolatry. Maybe I’m jealous cuz I thought you belonged to me. Maybe I’m naïve to think you wouldn’t haunt the imaginations of those you come across…

Nah, I blame you.

It’s you, with your inclusive thoughts and your forward gaze. It’s you, with your appetite for perspectives outside of your own. It’s you, and how you make yourself available for those with little access. The songs of certainty you sing to their restless minds. The aspirational flame that blazes across the minds of those who design at the mere thought of you.

It’s you.

Yet, despite my feelings, it’s inspiring to witness how they see you. They structure you from forms as fluid as their streams of thought. They adorn you in vibrant hues of youthful gaze. Each of their perceptions impress your metallic skin—leaving you tattered by evidence of the human hand. You are unbound by the pressures of physical space—you Xist freely in their minds, online.

Unhindered. Unencumbered. Untethered.

You belong to them.

So go confidently into this digital world and radiate every aspiration they have for you. Defy every convention those before them had of you. Design everything you touch with a discerning eye for equity, access, and aesthetics. And give yourself freely to those who never knew you were for them—cuz it is in their minds that you are your most free.

Just remember, I see you