It’s a bright morning before school, on the chilly side but warm wherever the sun shines. You are sitting by yourself on a bench, waiting patiently for the day to begin. Although you are alone, you don’t look lonely at all. In fact, you wave at acquaintances quite often. I think today you chose to sit by yourself, stranger. I wonder why.

You look like a girl who is comfortable with herself. You’re wearing a loose red sweater and you sit quite contently. The color of your hair is a little tinted, but not so much that it looks out of place on you. I think you’re an upperclassman—Asian—but I’m not sure. Though your hair is wet, you are not fussing with it like most girls do. Rather, your attentions are focused elsewhere. You look like a girl who lives in two worlds: one is in front of you, the other is inside you. As I watch, your eyes focus on a point so far in the distance you could not possibly be really seeing it, and I know you would not notice me even if I decided to sit next to you. Perhaps that is why you chose to be alone today.

As you sit, stranger, you radiate a sense of completeness. You look perfectly content, not looking for anything or worrying about what people think of you. With your hands folded neatly on your lap and your legs crossed, you look like you could sit there forever and not mind at all. You are rare, because you are a whole person in every sense of the phrase. A lot of people are lost at this age, searching for whatever it is that will make them satisfied: grades, friends, or relationships. As everyone searches for their other halves, you seem to have found it. I’m guessing you found it in yourself, in the vastness of the imagination that you possess. Perhaps I am wrong, stranger, but you look like an artist, like a girl who paints her soul on a canvas or maybe arranges it into lines of poetry. You try to bring the world in your head to the world you walk in. I think it would be fun to talk to you, stranger.
Well, stranger, the bell has rung and you’ve gotten up to go to class. Your eyes abruptly refocus to what’s straight ahead, and you head off. Even the way you walk is confident; you don’t look around for people to walk with. I think I could learn from you, stranger. I hope you won’t let the world change you. Don’t let it carve holes in you and take away your individuality.

I think you’ll be okay.

Regards,
Amelia