Select Your New Avatar

Once upon a time, there was a young man named Jake. He loved playing video games. He always selected the female character as his avatar.

One day Jake wasn’t watching where he was going and was hit by a car and died. To his surprise, as soon as he died, his consciousness was transported to a calm white room with ambient music playing. He was sitting at a desk with an unfamiliar computer in front of him. A female voice spoke the words “Thank you for playing. You are now dead. In case you didn’t know already, your entire life was a computer simulation. Would you like to start a new life?” Jake couldn’t believe it. He clicked the “Yes” button. The voice spoke, “select your gender” and the options male, female, and non binary appeared on the screen. Jake was overcome with excitement and selected female immediately. The voice said “What is your new name?”.  He typed in the name “Alexis Michelle Taylor” into the computer. Alexis was a breathtakingly beautiful, but somewhat shallow actress Jake was obsessed with. Next he was presented with a menu to customize his avatar’s body, race, hairstyle, hair color, tattoos, and clothes. He could even choose the body of a celebrity! Jake’s heart raced with excitement! He selected the body of a 16 year old Alexis Michelle Taylor. Her outfit was ripped jeans, a cutoff t shirt decorated with skulls, stilettos, demon wing tattoos on her back, and a snake tattoo down her arm. She had long, blonde hair. She was beautiful. Jake was excited this was going to be his, soon to be HER, new body, they thought. They were giddy beyond belief! When they were sure she was perfect, they clicked the “next” button. A contract far longer than the iTunes agreement appeared on the screen and they didn’t even try to read it. Instead, they immediately scrolled all the way to the bottom and clicked “I agree”. The voice spoke, “Are you sure?”. Jake, soon to be Alexis, took a deep breath, trembling with excitement and nervously pressed the “yes” button.

“I’M SORRY YOU DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH CREDITS.”, the voice sternly said. “You only accumulated 30,234 credits in your lifetime. A fraction of the 500,000 required to reincarnate in such a beautiful body. Credits are acquired through acts of humility, kindness, love, and selflessness, and honestly, you were kind of a scum bag, Jake. You were in the bottom 17% percentile, in fact.”, the voice scolded. “While you earn the necessary credits for your new avatar, you will start a new life as Herman Ostrich, a 59 year old man with scoliosis and chronic dandruff. Maybe in another life you will be more humble. Good luck!”

And with that, Jake got very dizzy and fell deep asleep. They woke up as Herman Ostrich and were immediately hopelessly depressed. Just moments ago, they felt they were destined for the perfect body and were going to live out their wildest fantasies, but now they were stuck in this old man body, and it was not pleasant. Herman struggled to get through life. They felt as if their existence was unbearable. They lived alone in a dingy apartment with barely enough money to survive. They felt like they were going insane with existential despair. They could kill themself, but they would only come back as something worse, a bug probably.  

Then one day, after years of suffering and cursing fate, Herman decided to make the most of their situation and they began to transition to a woman. They changed their name to Kelly Madison legally and started on hormones, identifying as a trans woman. She faced discrimination, judgement, and hatred. She realized how terrible she had been to women in her previous life and vowed to grow and change. She lived a life full of hardship, lessons learned, and ultimately love. As the decades went on, she became kinder, more charitable, and full of love. She took up painting, although she never sold a single painting, she put her entire heart and soul into her work. She painted many paintings of nature and portraits of people she admired. She helped everyone she met and her heart was full of kindness. Eventually she fell in love with a kind old man named Arthur and pretty soon she was on her deathbed, breathing her last breaths with her devoted lover beside her. “I love you” he tearfully whispered to her as she passed. Then everything went black.

Then white. She was in the calm white room once again. The music seemed more calming and beautiful this time. The voice gently spoke “Thank you for playing. You are now dead. You have accumulated a total of 500,000.25 credits.” Kelly felt a wave of relief wash over her. The voice continued, “You may now start a new adventure, if you wish. Would you like to change any settings on your saved avatar?”. Kelly had been thinking about this day for a long time. She chose the name “Arielle Stark”, which was the name of an astronaut, mother, humanitarian and women’s rights activist she had come to deeply appreciate. She chose the body of a 21 year old Lucy Liu. She removed all the tattoos, except for a few flower tattoos tastefully placed around her left arm and shoulder, and selected a beautiful peach sundress and sandals as her outfit. Her avatar was complete. She clicked “next”, then “I agree”, then “yes”. The voice spoke “Thank you. You may now start your new life as Arielle Stark. Good luck!”

Then Kelly fell into a deep relaxing sleep and awoke as Arielle. She looked in the mirror, and as she quietly admired her outer and inner beauty, she began to weep tears of joy. The calm, peace and love that she had cultivated in herself only continued to grow. She continued to paint. Her talent only grew, as did her dedication to her craft. She went to art school and was a straight A student. By the age of 27, she had her own art gallery in New York City. She sold many paintings and was featured in numerous prestigious art magazines. Despite her success, she remained kind and humble. She volunteered to help the needy and donated much of her fortune to charity.  

One day, while volunteering at a soup kitchen, she met an attractive, soulful young man named Harry. He was so kind to her. He was so kind to everyone. Pretty soon they started a relationship and fell deeply in love. He proposed marriage to her within a year and she said yes. They moved away from the busy city and quietly grew old together. They never stopped loving each other even for a moment. They were soulmates. Harry passed on at the age of 88. Arielle lived for 11 more years and passed away on her 100th birthday surrounded by all of her 7 children, 15 grandchildren and 27 great grandchildren.

The end.