[ WP ] Everybody who turns 25 learns a reality shattering secret about the world . Nobody has ever leaked this secret to somebody under 25 . Today is your 25th birthday .

I wake up in my bed, feeling quite refreshed. It feels like I can take on the world. I've only just graduated college, even if it was a bit late in my life. Those years backpacking around Europe were always a bright spot in my memory, but they really did set my graduation back. 
 
 First a quick shower and a cup of coffee to wake me up. As I try to turn on the lights, I notice that the power is out. Ah well, There should be enough hot water in the pipes, and there is plenty of sunlight in the room to see by. To my good fortune there is indeed enough water and I have a brief shower. Just as I'm finished getting dressed, there comes a knock on my door. That's pretty unusual, I certainly was n't expecting anyone this early. 
 
 I open the door, ready to politely decline whatever it is that they are selling. To my surprise I see myself standing there. 
 
 `` Hello John. Nice morning is n't it?'' 
 
 I stand stunned. 
 
 `` It is quite disconcerting, I know. But we've found that the juxtaposition of familiar and new can be helpful.'' 
 
 `` Who are you? Why do you look like me?'' 
 
 `` Right to the point, good, you're catching on. I'm you and you're me, but this'' he gestures expansively to my front lawn and neighbors houses `` is not quite what you think.'' 
 
 I'm still speechless. Maybe this guy is crazy? I should hear him out and then back away and call the police when I get a chance. 
 
 `` Let me get straight to the point. Everything you have experienced is a simulation. Including this. It turns out that the one thing that is hard to send to colonize another world, is a living person. So they sent a machine that could clone people when it arrived. That machine was damaged, and only our training simulation survived.'' 
 
 As he says that, a portal opened in the air behind him. A pair of brushed steel doors that seemed to retract into the open air, leaving a bright hallway somehow floating directly behind him. 
 
 `` You've trained your whole life for this John, come with me and see the utopia that we've built.'' 
 
 `` A simulation? My entire life was a simulation?'' I take out my wallet, flipping through it. I find a receipt for last week's pizza, a diner's club card, my driver's license. I can remember the details of each one, how I got it, little things that along the way. 
 
 `` Yes, it is a detailed simulation. But it is time for you to wake up. We need your skills to help us build the future. Every one of us is trained slightly differently, goes to college for something different, learns the skills that we need to make our civilization that much better.'' 
 
 This finally gets it through to me. This is my new job, what I've been preparing for. I toss my wallet aside as I follow myself through the portal. As I walk closer to the door, the world starts to disappear around me. The last thing left in the simulation as I take my final step out of it is the lone wallet, floating in the void. My driver's license still halfway out of the holder, showing just my last name. 
 
 Malkovitch.
