by Taylor Boyd
There is a strange phenomenon going about campus. Copies of former and current
students are coming into our school from the freshman class and from transfers. Is this some
sort of sign of the apocalypse? Or maybe some government or alien plan to replace Virginia
Wesleyan students with beings that may be more advanced than us?
All I know is that it’s a very awkward experience to walk up to a person you assume is
your friend and give them a big hug, only to discover that the person you are embracing has no
idea who you are. They look at you with confused yet concerned faces, and explain that they had
no idea you existed in their universe until this encounter.
In old folk stories a doppelganger is a double, or mirror image, of a living
person. Within these different myths and tales, they are said to be mystic beings that bring
misfortune or bad luck, which personally concerns me. Now I am not saying that this is the case
for us; however, I find it particularly odd that all of the people who have told me that they have
actually seen their doppelgangers have not interacted with them. Maybe it’s from fear of being
replaced, but I do not know this for sure.
You always want to feel that you are unique, that you are an original and that you are the
only you in the entire world. But seeing these copies makes me ask the question, how
original are we? Yes, there are some other things to take into account, like genetics and how
some genes may be more similar than others, forming similarities in both appearance and personality between people, but I feel that this phenomenon is even more complicated than our DNA.
What do you think about this wonder of “double vision,” so to
speak? I, too, have been asked if I were in someone’s business or art class, being mistaken for
someone else. I must say that I am very curious about what my doppelgänger is like. At the
same time, I am concerned that my doppelgänger may not have the same manners that I have.
For example, imagine if you were to try to walk into a party and got stopped at the door because
you apparently trashed the last one you attended. However, you soon realize that the troublemaker wasn’t you,
but someone else who looked like you. How will we function in a world where everyone is a
clone of someone else? Prepare yourselves for the inevitable conquest that walks among us. But
hey, who am I to judge? I am sure that these doppelgängers are very pleasant people and mean us
no harm.
