Clarendon metro

I take a train to Clarendon and watch life passing by.
Life, science, traveling and the theater have humbled me. I find happiness in unexpected places today.

A black kid with a toy. A little girl's little fingers. An old woman reading peacefully. An awkward dude with a coy smile -trying to begin a conversation.

I talk to a stranger about drug rehabilitation. "The brain, it just grows back, you know? I can smell cinnamon again, it's wonderful."

A homeless person tells me his story.

I smile thinking of my last theater class where I was a chimp. So committed was I to a chimp, that my knuckles still hurt under my bandage after four days.

I look at a mad woman pulling out random things from her pockets. Memory is like that crazy woman.

I am sad today. I am thinking of M. We have not spoken well for a while. We only fall asleep on Skype - happy to hear each other's breaths after long days.

I am hanging in there, trying to pull off my PhD, sending money home, and a long distant relationship.

"If nothing else, all this has at least built character", I think.

And I freeze in horror of what a full-blown adult I have become.