Greetings

Translated…

That day, I’d bumped into a middle-aged woman from upstairs, she looked very kind. After a simple hello, I thought, she will ask me about what year I’m in. Naturally, as the elevator doors closed, she’d smiled and asked, “What year are you in college now?”

“I’m a senior,” for these four years, this same question she’d asked time and time again, and yet, she’d never actually, remembered my replies, like this greeting is used to replace, “Did you eat already?”, another general greeting.

In this cramped up space, I’d always, hoped to arrive to first floor quickly, or that some neighbor can, barge in, to alleviate the tense atmosphere; if the elevator was headed straight down, she’d kept asking, and sometimes, she’d managed to get what I bought from online yesterday, and all I can say, is that, I can’t quite escape the neighbor’s passionate inquiries of me. But, although I’d gotten tired of this way of interacting with her, I’d told her again and again, and gotten the sense of how we’re connected to one another, by sharing the same building.

this is the sort of interaction we engage in when we were younger, NOT my picture…

But, as the elevator stopped, and everybody leaves immediately. Is this, a sort of a magical ability from the elevators? That kept this sort of not-really-there kind of connection intact? Recently, I’d started feeling this sort of a magical property outside the elevators too—the “fueling stations” for Pokémon Go.

Originally, it was, only this random place where people come and go to and from, not saying long, but we’d gotten gathered up, to catch the Pokémons. And, people who don’t know one another, squeezed tightly next to each other, and, the greetings started, “This, is a hard-to-capture monster, isn’t it?” and, “What level are you right now?”

and now…

only occupying the same space, with different matters on their minds…not my photo here.

In a small space, to achieve the same goals, people had, gathered up, as the goals were met, we’d left each other, without a second thought. And still, as we all bumped into one another again, we couldn’t help, but use that same old greeting again and again, and this added something interesting, to our less-than interesting, ordinary lives.

So, out of habit, is why we’d greeted each other, this not only applies to people living in the same building, but to people who are neighbors to each other, who rarely bumped into one another, and, that, is just how superficial the world is becoming, we’d shared the same living spaces, but, never really gotten to know one another in person, it’s actually, very sad if you think about it…