Never Be Afraid to Let Your Feelings Spill Out
Safe spaces can crop up in strange and unexpected places
I was waiting for class to start in the department lounge room — a small area for students to relax with a few chairs — when she walked in. I didn’t know her all that well but had always thought it might be neat to get to know her.
The thought was never serious — more a random stray idea whenever I’d see her.
One of those people you spot at a distance and speculate there’s a chance you may make decent friends. We ended up in plenty of classes together and were both relatively quiet. Sometimes, she left class quicker than I did at the end of a period.
For some reason, we also had the happenstance of seeing each other several times a week outside of the classroom.
On more than a few occasions, we ended up one of the few students out for an early breakfast at a café. Sometimes, I’d walk by her on campus in the middle of the day. In later years, it wasn’t uncommon for me to pass her on the street I lived on — I suspect she lived somewhere along the same stretch.
A book-smart, loner type who seemed to have an awkward way of being not entirely unlike mine, the feeling of similar vibes is what drove my brief considerations of hypothetical friendship.
