A Lamentation of Rejection

So I walk into dhall. Everything’s new. New lights, new stations, new bowls, new kids.It’s Saturday, and Wetherell’s closed. As I approach the center of dhall, I am reminded of a Chinese farmer’s market, because of the number of people crowded together for food that I’m honestly not that interested in.After waiting in a line that I didn’t know was a line, I make it to the cuisine of my choice and I pile up the pasta onto my plate. I turn to my left, and walk slowly to the familiar wooden tables and take a seat, and as I’m eating, my advisor Bruce enters the building, holding his child Harper in two arms. It’s the first time I have seen him in months, and I rush him with tears of joy trickling down my tanned cheeks. We chit chat for a little bit, exchange smiles, and do things that fathers and sons do when they haven’t seen each other in a long time.When we finish talking, I bend my knees to get to Harper’s level and attempt to give her a hug. She looks away, and at first I thought she was a little shy, but as I get closer, she rotates even more into Coach Shang’s chest, and I realize, gradually, that I just got denied by young Harper.I was aghast. Does she not know that I helped raise her when her parents chose not to? Is Harper not aware that I babysat her for several hours and watched her when she was sleeping and vulnerable to attacks of all kinds? Voluntarily?You know, when I got to school, I knew that I would get the occasional “no” from girls, but this...this is a little much. It was just so soon. I literally just got here. It was the first time I’ve stepped in Elm.I feel really hurt. I gazed into Harper’s large, brown, eyes as I stepped in for the sweeping hug, and she just curled into a little ball of refusal.Maybe it’s for the best. Mom always says upper year is the hardest year and I shouldn’t be distracted by girls anyways. There’s a lot of other better things to worry about. Like if I’ll get good grades in calculus, or what StuCo’s up to, or whether or not I’ll become a humor editor.It’s been two days and I still think about it. Hopefully, it will be one of the few rejections of the year.