Move B*tch, I said get out the way

Fuck a duck in the morning
Screw a kangaroo in the afternoon

What if grasshoppers carried six shooters? Birds wouldn't fuck with 'em.

Ten-four Big Chicken, I hear ya cluckin'

Head shoulders knees and toes, knees and toes...

Looking around the room, I write about things I see to get me started. I see many people looking intently at their computer screens, people reading, people sleeping. I see people copying homework from their friends. I see people bounce their leg and play with their pencil. I see people attacking their keyboards because they need to get this paper done NOW! I see complacent countenances and bored looks on faces. I hear Rent. People blowing their nose much too softly. Tapping on the chair.

Thoughts. Always there. Always there in the forefront or back of my mind, depending on the time. Thoughts. Things thought about. Life. Future. Now. Then. What does that mean? I don't know. It means I'm alive. I look around at these people and I wonder what they'll being doing in ten years, in twenty. I wonder if they're happy, and if they'll be happy then too. I wonder if they have worries and dreams and goals and fears just like me, but I never ask. No, that wouldn't be a cool things to do. And then I wonder, "Do they ask these things about me?" Wow, I guess I've never tried to think of myself from someone else's perspective. I've never been good at that sort of thing, empathizing with someone. A foot tapping on the floor. A chair makes that noise a chair makes when one stands up. Another person blowing their nose.

I also wonder, what these people are doing now. What are they thinking about? Their afternoon maybe, or their plans for the weekend. Am I the odd one that thinks of what others are thinking? Maybe. Are they carrying baggage from something? I don't even know if these people all have parents. I don't know them, and it's really weird. They don't really know me either then, I suppose. Not that I think anyway...

A pencil twirls. I look at the clock. Fifteen minutes left. Someone texting furiously. Are they mad at someone, or is it just urgent? To call them would be too inconvenient. Back fat spilling over the top of the chair, what the fuck man? Did you just wake up one day and you were three hundred pounds? I doubt it. More typing. A sniff. A phone call heard by only the quietest of whispers in the corner.

Am I alive? What am I doing here, in this classroom, writing a philosophical repose of the class. What would I being now if I were born in a different country? I could be crammed in an over-crowded subway in China, or doing shots of vodka at lunch in Moscow, or worshipping cows in India. I could be burying my parents in Africa. I could be hoping my house doesn't become engulfed by a landslide in South America. Neat to think about, that. Everything that is happening in the world right now and what I'm doing right now and how insignificant it is in comparison. Then to think of things like the scale of the Sun and the vastness of the universe, really makes you wonder, am I that big of a deal?

No, we really aren't. Humans collectively make next to no difference in anything ever. Among our own affairs yes, but in the grand scheme of things we are but a spectating speck of dust, drifting aimlessly through time and space. Life is still good though. For the time that we've got, I would prefer to enjoy it.

I will enjoy my time, yes. Are these other people enjoying themselves right now? Do they take time to have fun? One can speculate, but one really can never truly know someone. Someone biting their nails. Shouldn't do that, it's a bit gross. Four minutes left in class. People getting anxious to run off to their next class.

Take time, and enjoy life. I'll remember that as I'm walking as fast as humanly possible to get to class. I'll remember that next time I'm driving 15 mph over the speed limit because I'm late. I'll remember that, to remember that, as many people don't.