I am her physical opposite, and I have never in my life said “Oh my gosh,” but I am 10,000 times more comfortable than I was just five minutes before
You know how you can be in the middle of the craziest hubbub ever but you just kind of zoom in on one thing and lose focus of everything else? Like you’re in the grocery store before Pesach and there are people pushing loaded carts all around you, and there are towering displays of matzah lurking at the end of every aisle, and all you notice is a single grape lying on the floor?
So that’s what happens when I walk into my new school. There are kids everywhere, teachers, noise… and I see a pair of sneakers. They’re not the same as mine, but they’re sneakers. Someone else is wearing un-cool shoes. I walk toward the sneakers. This is the girl I will ask for directions, I tell myself.
As I approach, I take stock. Other than the sneakers, she’s every bit my opposite: I am short and petite, with dark, frizzy hair and glasses. She is tall, like waaaay tall, and her hair is straight and blondish brown, and she’s not wearing glasses. But there’s something very familiar about her. It’s not something I can see, not something I can name, but it’s something I can sense: She’s deeply uncomfortable.
“Hi,” I say. “I’m new here—”
Before I can say my name and introduce myself, she blurts out, “Oh my gosh, me too!”
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