I AM

Whenever people ask me "Who are you," I tell them, "I'm the son of Col. Bajet, sir/ma'am."
Same as to whenever people recognize me, they say, "You're Col. Bajet's son, right?"
It's a vicious cycle of "who's who" and "what's what".
All around me, I feel eyes watching, staring closely at me, I can feel a thousand souls breathing down my neck.
You would think that my family would feel insecure in the process? No. They enjoy the attention.
They love the fact that the nobility that defines us is the nobility of being better than our fellowmen.
Next thing I knew, I was shipped to Camp All Your Privileges Mean Squat.
Why? Well I guess it's because they wanted me to fly birds of war high in the vastness of the sky and space and look down upon all those people who knew us, all those people we, no, THEY have bested.
As they look up to me in the heavens, my father magnifies his glory.
"Mr. You!" an upperclassman shouts, "What's your name?!"
"Cadet 4th Class Bajet, sir!", "The son of Col. Bajet?" , "Yes, sir!"
You see? everybody knows my father, not me.
To them, I'm sperm of my father that will proceed to live his glory and legacy long after he sleeps.
To them, I'm the continuation of something great.
Then I had an epiphany that pricked my heart like thorns on a rose. I was not meant to have an existence, but merely be a tool to extend my father's.
But now that I have returned to sleep a "sound" night in four walls of shame and disappointment,
Everybody now sees me.
I'm now branded as the dust in the corner that was covered behind my father's shadow,
The spitting image of a great man I could never become.
Nonetheless, I pursue my happiness, my purpose, my existence.
THen I realized that true nobility is not being better than others, but being better than myself.
I might not ever be able to introduce myself as Lt. Bajet,
But from now on, whenever somebody asks me "Who are you?"
I'll tell them straight in the eye with the purest of smiles... "I AM".