Approaching a Stranger

One minute, Three minutes, Five...Five long minutes has passed. The minutes had suddenly turned into hours, endless long hours of sitting in the enormous, never ending theater that seemed to be swallowing me slowly as I walked further and further into it.

 It was the first day of high school , first day of Sophomore year. I experienced Freshmen year in junior high, but high school was nothing like that. I knew half the faces in the previous classes since junior year. But today, as I took one tiny step in this enormous, never ending theater, I felt like I actually took a step in another dimension.

I looked around at the old, empty seats that seems to be going on forever. I sat at the very end of the row,nervously fiddling with my thumbs. I didn't know what I was doing here, or why on earth I even signed up for this class. I'm outrageously too shy to act in front of hundreds of people. I can't even join a club without freaking out. I had so many things in my mind that my thoughts became louder than the rumble of the air conditioning.

A random guy sat next to me. He had this huge smile on his face as if he were happy to see me and his eyes stared directly into mine. He wore a faded black shirt and rip faded grey skinny jeans with white paint stains on them. His hair was big and curly as if it took hours to get it the stay that way in the morning. He stared at me for a good minute. I was freaking out. He finally broke the silence.

"Hi stranger, are you new here?" the guy said. The tone when he said stranger felt so unreal like he was trying to be sarcastic or rude in a nice way. "Because I'm usually the first one here but I guess since you came before me you're new here." This guy must love theater. I didn't say a word. I felt like I've suddenly swallowed my tongue.

The last bell finally rang and a mob of chatter boxes suddenly entered the enormous whale-mouth-like theater. Almost everyone who came in, knew each other. Then I've notice there was about three others and myself that came in as if we ran into Medusa and turned into stone.

An average size man with a beard grown out like Santa Clause finally stood among us on stage, quited us down, and quickly gave us instruction. It was our theater director. "Everyone quickly find a partner and introduce yourself." Those were the first words that came out of his mouth and I thought to myself  "Crap" what kind of sin had fell upon me whenever no one in site is recognizable? I just sat there,  and amazingly the same random guy sat right next to me.

"He held out his hand and I nervously grabbed it"

Mr. Random held out his hand and I nervously grabbed it. My palms were sweaty, and I trembled nervously while he warmly introduced himself. "I figured the cat got your tongue" he said, "But I'm Tony. It really was nice meeting you even if the cat did get your tongue ." I mumbled a few words and finally introduced myself. I felt a little better when we started discussing random topics like favorite food, movies, and how he wore different pair of socks everyday. It was like endless hours of getting to know each other. He actually was new to this class as well but he loved acting and he wasn't as shy as I was when it came to getting in front of hundred of people and putting on a show for them. We had a few things in common like how our birthdays were the same. I started to talk a little bit more and more each moment.

As the day finally ended, I've learn to realize that sometimes meeting someone completely new can result into many different approaches. There can be the shy and nervous type of people like myself, sitting there awkwardly and responding in a low tone voice or some people can be out going and heartwarming like Tony, being able to talk to anyone and have a on going conversation without having any boundaries to where the conversation slowly dies out. Meeting new people is a lifetime experiences. As people grow older, get into college, start working, or move to a different state, the obviously statement that we're going to meet a full load of new people or maybe just a few.At least now I know there won't be any cat stealing my tongue.