I am now sitting on the sofa in the LitSoc room. I have heard the annoying ring of the AS5 lift door opening and close about 20 times today. I don't think I've ever said this out loud but the sound makes me nervous.

I listen to Coldplay sing about how they will try to fix me: an exercise in irony because I don't need to be fixed.

I don't need to be fixed, I don't need to be fixed. Maybe if I say it over enough times in my head I will start to believe it.

It is always sad when you start to think in cliches.

But this morning I remembered something someone said a few years ago and I remembered how if I never see him again, it will still be too soon.

So I sit and wait in silence.

Until my eyes meet with a face across from me.

And we talk. And I find it is easier to speak of my most personal secrets with someone I barely know. And that's when I know I've found kinship with an almost stranger.

So maybe one day you and I will learn to stop speaking in cliches. But until then I will continue to let myself be taken in by this kinship with an almost stranger.

PAST • FUTURE