The #1
They say, one is the loneliest number, but is it? 1 is the initial number that comes before every other number. Technically, zero comes before 1 but zero signifies nothingness. Zero is just a void. It is an empty shell. The number that starts everything is 1. Think about it, we don’t start a count with 0, we start with 1. It is the king of numbers. 1 signifies the start, the beginning, the genesis, the birth, the launch, the emergence of everything. It is a beautiful number. It is easy to write. If we see it as a symbol, it is just a straight line. No matter which part of the world we go to. If we show just one finger, everyone will know that we mean to say one. 1 has many names. People of different languages know it by different names. Some other names for 1 are: ek(Nepali), uno (Spanish), ich(Japanese), yi (Chinese), une (French), isa (Filipino), einer (German) etc. But these aren’t the reason why I love the number 1. I love it because every one of us is looking for it and so am I. We are looking for that one extra mark in our exams, one extra hour with our friends, one extra minute while giving exams, one extra hour of sleep, one extra day to do our assignment, one extra day off. We are searching for that one extraordinary thing that will make us different from the rest. We all wish to be our own person. I do as well. I want to be me. Well, guess what? There is only one of you in this entire world. Your fingerprint is just one of a kind. No one else has the exact pattern. You are the only one who has it. There are also other things like your own unique tongue pattern, your own unique personality, your own set of beliefs, etc. We are all special because of the fact that every one of us have that one thing that makes us, us. Let’s go far back to the past, let’s go around the time of the big bang. The one explosion created everything. That one moment in time created matter, the stars, the cosmos, the galaxy, the lights, the atoms… etc. Everything comes down to that one single moment. The first element, Hydrogen, started chain reactions that created everything else. At some point in time one hydrogen atom fused with another atom to create helium. With the creation of these two gases, the stars were formed. Right now if you look out the window, every star you see, it was created just because one hydrogen atom decided to fuse with another one. That one moment created history. Speaking of history, just imagine how the first cell was created. First there were just elements then somehow life was created. How was the first cell? Humanity and every other creature spawned form one single cell. One cell started a revolution. So don’t say that one can’t make a difference. “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.” – Margaret Mead This is one of my favorite quotes because it sums up the power of one. One small group can make a big difference. A group is made up of single individual people. Every group has a leader. The leader is the one who comes up with an idea or belief. That person spreads his/her idea to many people, thus forming the said group. Thus, one can make a difference. We are all searching for that one person. The one who will make us laugh when we cry, the one who will pick us up when we are down, the one who will make us happy when we are sad, and the one who will always be there for us. We all search for that one best friend whom we can share our thoughts, our secrets, our wishes, our hopes, our dreams with. Some of us have already found THE ONE. The one we can do all these things with. Some of us have multiple people who we may call THE ONE. For us THE ONEs are our father, our mother, our teacher, our friend, our lover and for most of us, our spouse. One is a beautiful number. It represents many things while maintaining its integrity and its charm. We owe our lives and our existence to the number 1. It is a simple number yet it is so complex and hides many secrets. It shows us the world as well as it hides many things. I hope you have understood why I love the #1. This article is just a small fraction of the reasons why #1 is so important to me. If we ever get a chance, I can tell you more about the #1 and all its glory as we sit under the sun in cold winter season.