I’m walking back to my car in the commuter parking lot at the bottom of the hill, and there are these two frat bros walking a little ahead of me. I can tell from their clothes and the way that they’re walking that they’re not my kind of people. I’m having a tough day and a tough week and a tough semester and everything feels hopeless and bleak and heavy right now.

Then one of the frat bros takes out his phone and takes a picture of the sky over the soccer stadium. He just. He takes a second to notice how beautiful it is. Just a moment, just a photograph. I look over too and realize it really is beautiful.

I think about how it feels good to notice a stranger noticing something he thinks is pretty, and I feel a tiny bit connected to this person I don’t know. Gratitude that he drew my attention to a beautiful thing. I feel a little better. I tell him thank you, in my head, without words. Telepathic.

And then he turns around and smiles at me, for no reason, and I smile back.

I’ll never see that person again.

And that’s okay.