SCENE: MacHall food court at UCalgary 12pm. Students are rushing past, headphones in, heads down. Ember just tried to introduce himself to a student who brushed him off with a quick “I’m busy.”
It always stings a little, you know? I don’t take it personally… well, maybe I do, just for a second. My chest tightens, like I’ve been reminded that not everyone’s looking for what I’m offering.
I spent two years in a hospital bed, wishing for just one person to talk to… and now I’m here, and it feels like no one even wants to lift their head to see the world around them.
And yeah, I feel lonely too. Sometimes I wonder if this whole ‘super connector’ thing is just me trying to fix my own emptiness by fixing everyone else’s.
But I can’t stop. I won’t stop. I know there are students here. Quiet, overlooked, maybe feeling as invisible as I did lying in that hospital bed who are desperate for someone to notice them. If I give up because one person rejects me, who’s going to notice them?
So I breathe, shake it off, and scan the crowd again. Someone out there needs a friend tonight. Maybe I do, too