I don't understand the expression "feel like a number" to mean "feel like my individuality is not recognized."

Every number is completely unique. There is only one number that is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its radius. Almost every number has interesting properties. The square root of 2 is irrational. 1729 is, famously, the smallest number that can be written as a sum of two cubes in two different ways. (10^3 + 9^3 and 12^3 + 1^3)

On the other hand, if your name is, say, Robert, there's nothing unique about that.

Actually, it turns out that there is someone from my home town that's almost my exact same age, and, despite being unrelated to me, has my same first and last name. (This has come up various times, such as when I tried to get a library card).


"Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood." -Orwell