Manga emotions (Photo credit: Wikipedia)For the second exercise we had to write about someone who is indifferent due to a personal agenda. I originally wrote this for the first exercise but felt that it fit this one better.“Can I get your signature? Just your name please. Will you sign this, you don’t even need to read it? Please sign this petition to save the children’s home. No, that’s okay.” We need two hundred signatures to save the children’s home from being torn down. Just two hundred, it seems almost impossible. I had hoped that coming to a college campus that it might be easier to get some signatures.
“Sir, just a second of your time, could you sign this, please just a second to save orphans. No, thanks anyways.” Still the same story, trying to get signatures, but people walk right past s if I am invisible. College students stream by me, carrying their backpacks, trudging their way to wherever they are going. So focused on getting there, they don’t see the world around them.
“Could you please spare a second? An orphanage is going to be destroyed, if we can’t get enough signatures. Please sign this.” Some don’t even bother to respond, they just walk past. I can even see some students changing directions just to avoid me. What will it take to get people to sign? What should I do?
“Orphans are being kicked out into the street. Sign this to stop it. Stop orphans from being kicked out. Sign this,” still no responses. I walk around the quad and head towards the student recreation center. Maybe some students there will spare a second. The center is packed with students playing games, working out, and hanging out.
“Orphans being murdered on the streets, orphans being sold as prostitutes, stop it by signing this.” The students run around me, ignoring me. Even here, even though it seems full of life and activity, the students’ dead eyes show that there is nothing here. They play and talk, but most of all, they pretend not to see or hear me.
“Children using drugs. Children forced into lives of crime. Sign this.” I move through the large building, looking for hope while I act like a carnival barker or some tv salesman. I want them to pay attention, but it as if I don’t exist to them. Do I exist? Do the children exist? Maybe the students I am calling to don’t exist.
“Sign, Sign, Sign this. Help. Please Help. Help me.” I leave the building and feel like I am fading away. Maybe, I never existed. I float towards one of the dining halls. In there, people stuff food into their mouths. They do not care what they eat so they eat. They are too busy cramming to notice me. Too busy eating to hear or see or anything, but the food in front of them.
“Can anyone hear me?” I fade away nothing matters. My fliers fly away; maybe someone else can help them. The papers drift on by; they don’t matter. I don’t matter. The orphans should help themselves. There are no orphans. There is no I.
“Can I get your signature? Just your name please. Will you sign this, you don’t even need to read it? Please sign this petition to save the children’s home.” A voice fills the air, but it makes no impact on me. Words filled with no substance. I drift on by.
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