Strangers

I haven't expressed my curiosity toward strangers in a while--probably because the ones at school seem less and less interesting, the older I get; probably also because I'm getting older, in general--but today was an exception. Today, I felt curious about the people around me who I didn't know: the weird guy in all my classes who talks to himself and occasionally offers me unsolicited legal pad, the girl in my one lab class who I always see hanging out at the Coffee Bean early in the morning, the noisy guy in my Trig class with a middle eastern last name and alabaster skin, and so on.

I wonder why these people are in the course we're in and how they got there. I know some of them are my age, some of them maybe older. Some of these people are in BS Psychology (I always feel the need to stress the difference between that and AB Psychology as I cannot help my condescension despite being aware of it) as a result of wanting to be there--some of these people shifted to this course, like me. Some of these people are disappointed, too. And also, some of these people seem so truly, thumpingly normal: some of these people are there because they didn't know what they wanted in High School, except that they wanted the option of going to Med School one day. These are the people who fascinate me the most: the ones who rush out of the classroom or lab so they can have lunch with their friends or so they can go catch a movie. These strangers, so excited and so ready for the day always make me wish I was invisible, so I could see the expressions on their faces when they meet up with their friends or when they see the guy they met at an org party who they thought they wouldn't see again. How must that feel? I know I knew, once. But I've left so many things behind: part of that is memory of feeling.

On one hand, thank god. On the other hand--