Every day I walk on my way to class, usually a short few minute stroll, and I see people. I pass the same people every day. I look at them when I walk by, I glance at their expressions, I see the way they walk, the way they carry their books, how they talk to their friends. When I watch them I can't help but think about what their lives are like. I don't believe anyone has a good life. I don't believe anyone is happy. I think the real essence of being human is how you live with the suffering you are born with. When I think about how those people live their lives, how they act superior to feel respected, how they ignore the feelings of others because it's too difficult to consider them, how they find joy and interest in other's misfortune, I can't help but feel alone.

Sometimes I feel like I'm surrounded by shadows, not living beings, not things with hearts and minds, just nothingness. As I walk on cold winter mornings I can't help but feel like I'm walking alone. I feel like I spend my days alone. I sit alone in empty rooms, I come back to my empty dorm, I fall asleep in my empty bed, and the only thing I hear...are shadows playing across the window.

What is it that makes you human? Isn't it that you can love someone? How can things that are so cruel and cold, careless and unkind, selfish and unafraid, be able to love? If people loved others, really loved them, they wouldn't be so indifferent. Their minds and hearts wouldn't be so easily swayed. They would love to their last dying breath, they would give everything, do anything, for love.

There are some I think that don't do that. I know a small few I think try, even then I wonder. I love them though.

It may seem as if I'm being cruel myself. But I think if you look...really look...both at others and at yourself, you might consider that shadows exist.