Perspective

She preferred to sit alone. The loneliness always seemed to provide her some solace and also it placed her under less scrutiny. Maybe some people did tag her as a loner, but she intuitively knew that they will move on to find a better target; a more happening target; someone with more drama;  someone worth gossiping about. There was a time when she was at the cynosure of her class, but that was before her life took a U-turn. As time passed, she realized that even though she used to be the most popular girl in the class; like ‘Gatsby’ level popular, she never really had any genuine friends. They all stuck around her due to her popularity, and they also fell off, as she fell off her pedestal of fame.

Among all this darkness, the only ray of sunshine was her soaring academic performance. With an almost empty schedule; which was an outcome of the decreased social interaction, she was able to dedicate more time to her academics.  The time she spent in going out for parties and the subsequent recovery from the hangover, was now used for learning the various virus-caused diseases and the various electrophilic aromatic substitution reactions of benzene. She astonishingly understood all her lessons and was always at the summit of the class ranks. She also became less conscious of other’s opinions and began to live her life the way she desired. Amongst the cascade of changes that occurred in her life, the one that struck her the most was the lack of love and warmth in her life. Maybe there was never any love or warmth in her life, but it was always masked by the presence of her ‘fake’ friends. She kept convincing herself that her ‘so-called’ friends were authentic and would be there for her; through her ups and downs, but time slowly exposed their true nature.  There were times when she longed a listening ear, just to pour her heart out. She wanted to express herself to someone who cared, not through Instagram stories, Snapchats, and Whatsapp statuses. Her reverie of thoughts was broken as the lecturer entered the class with a booming “silence”. 

Surrounded by his clique, he felt very happy. He really appreciated the company of his friends and he knew he could always fall back on them. As they settled down in the lecture theatre, his thoughts wandered off to the pretty girl in the corner. He always had a crush on her, but he was never good at expressing himself. She always looked so forlorn and glum, and he wanted to change that. He desperately wanted to put a smile on that face; a genuine grin, not the fake ones she plastered on her face when talking to others. He wanted to hear the glee in her voice; not the fake enthusiasm she forced into her voice when interacting with others. He wanted to share his happiness, and in the process take some of her sadness. He felt a slight nudge on his elbow and realized the lecturer had already started explaining about benzene in his monotonous voice.

She always got the ‘mean girls’ vibe when she entered the lecture theatre with her minions at her service. She really really hoped everybody noticed her new Gucci bag and Dolce and Gabbana shoes, which she spent a fortune on. She sighed as she noticed that one of her minions wore slippers. She could never manage to get any fashion sense into these imbeciles. But she will have to make do with them. She made a mental note to herself to deliver a long lecture to them about the importance of proper dressing.  As her thoughts diverged, she scanned the entire lecture theatre until she finally found her target. This suddenly gave her immense pleasure! To look at the former ‘Regina’ of the class and flaunt it in her face, that she was no longer even considered ‘cool’. She purposely passed by her and flipping her hair back muttered ‘loner’ loud enough for her to hear. Proud of herself, she took a seat as the lecture started to commence.

More anxious than nervous, she entered the lecture theatre. Due to a chronic medical condition, she had to join a month late and that meant this was her first lecture at University. Due to her setback, she really hoped that she would manage to make friends. Her eyes scanned the lecture theatre and she found a majority of the students clustered together discussing animatedly.  Though she really hoped that she would be part of such a group, she lacked the courage to approach a clique. Performing a more intense search, she found a girl sitting in the corner of the lecture theatre, all alone. The girl seemed to be lost in some sort of reverie, but she seemed her type. As she walked towards her, a sudden thought hit her. What if she turned out to be a loner? What if making friends with her, would decrease her chances of making friends? That meant that she would never be able to part of a clique. She hesitated a bit, and it was in this gap that lecturer decided to make his magnificent entry. “Silence”, his voice boomed, and she quickly took a seat.

As he entered the class, he performed his routine ‘silence’. This always managed to have the desired effect. The students would quickly settle down and open up their notes or laptops. As he set up his laptop, his eyes searched the lecture theatre. Not bad, more than half of the class decided to show up. As he continued his search, he eyes settled on the girl at the corner of the lecture theatre. He seldom showed an interest of any type in freshies, but this girl fascinated him. She suddenly seemed to have a sparked interest in chemistry, as she didn’t show any interest in the start. She always asked questions at the end of every lecture, but what was surprising was that her questions were always beyond the scope of the upcoming exams. The common trend among freshies was that if a topic was not tested, they wouldn’t show the least interest in it. But she was different; she was genuinely interested in the topic. As soon as the slides loaded, he forgot about the girl and moved on to delivering the lecture.  

I’ve learned that two people can look at the exact same thing and can see something different.