Been staring at this screen for… too long. Trying to draft an email. To a friend. An old friend, I guess. From college. We used to be thick as thieves, you know? Now? Ahora? It’s… different. I open up the AI, same as always. “Draft an email to [name], catching up, mention the old spot we used to hang out, inquire about their kids.” Yeah. Even for friends. My own words just… don’t come out right anymore. Or I think they won’t. Like, my actual thoughts, my real voice, it’s just not… *enough*. Not articulate enough. Not interesting. Not like it used to be. Like I used to be. It started with clients, you know? Pitching, proposals. Had to sound polished, professional. Got used to the AI making my language… better. More concise. More persuasive. Then it was cover letters. Then… everything. Even texts to my family. “Hey Mom, just checking in, hope you’re well.” *Sent via AI.* No, not really, but it *feels* like it. The words are right, the grammar is perfect, but it’s not *me*. It’s a simulation of me. A better, more palatable me. And now this. A friend. Someone who knew the *real* me. Knew my stupid jokes, my rambling stories, my terrible handwriting. And I’m about to send them something crafted by a machine. Something flawless. Something… empty. Like, what if they see through it? What if they can tell? Or what if they *can’t*? And then we reconnect, and it’s all based on this… this perfectly optimized version of me? I just want to say, “Hey man, it’s been a minute. Remember that dive bar, the one with the sticky floor? What are you up to these days?” But then I second-guess everything. Is ‘dive bar’ too casual? Is ‘sticky floor’ too much detail? Will they think I’m just trying too hard? Or not trying hard enough? It’s a constant loop. My brain just… scrambles. So I let the algorithm do the heavy lifting. And it’s… good. The AI version of me sounds calm, collected, successful. Everything I’m not at 2 am, staring at a blank screen, feeling like a ghost.