Questions In The Cafeteria

Have you ever seen a movie where the main character is sitting in some crowded place for an extended period of time and while the main character stays stationary the people surrounding him are constantly moving and interchanging?  The filming is done in some sort of time-lapse trance and it is usually when the character is dealing with something.

I hope that makes since and that you can get a visual in your mind because today that character was myself.

I sat in the back left corner of my colleges’ school cafeteria on a ugly purple couch. I watched people walk in and walk out, some alone, others in groups, some franticly scarfing there food, others calmly doing there studies, it was interesting to sit there for a few hours just watching the come and go of it all.

When I walked in and sat down with my coffee I had no intention of photographing what I saw but with my ear buds blaring in my ears I escaped into the depths in my mind and I watched the people and there lives and my hands took over and I was capturing what was there in front of me.

Where is the story in this? Why is this important? If you’re taking the time to ask those questions why don’t you ask yourself why it isn’t important?

I became overcome with thought, the realization that life was happening and it wasn’t stopping, not for me not or for anyone was intense an feeling. It wasn’t stopping for the mother who wanted to further her education to perhaps better enhance her children’s future. It wasn’t stopping for the coffee maker that has worked in the cafeteria for countless months. It wasn’t stopping for the boy and girl sharing the first of many cups of coffee together. Life was around me and the difference in us all was undoubtedly there.

 

It was crazy to think we all inhabited the same room but at the same time we were just bodies filling up a room.

What connected us?

I imagined myself fading into the couch and I wondered if I disappeared if any head would turn. Would the almost couple beside me stop laughing or would the young boy in front on me look up from his text?  I also wondered the same thing about a girl wearing a cute brown jacket to my left if she faded into her bench would I have looked up and noticed?

In life weather we are munching on an apple under a tree or in a cafeteria do we ever take the time to step outside our minds and look at the world around us. I wondered about all the lives around me and I pondered at what made them tick or laugh. Could it be like a child in a sandbox who offers a shovel to the child beside them and suddenly they’re playmates for life… Could I go up to the girl in the cute brown jacket and ask to join her in this culture? Is friendship that simple as the sandbox effect when we grow older?

I walked out of the cafeteria looked over at the girl and thought about commenting on her outfit but in the end, a creature of habit, I simply walked out and carried about my business.  

Maybe next time…

If she has a next time…