You know how in The Sixth Sense you don't notice that no one ever talks to Mr. Guy-with-an-irrelevant-name until the very end?
I want to know how he failed to notice. I used to have days in high school where I would be in a room with other people and only one of them would acknowledge anything I said or did, like she was the only one who noticed me. From time to time (like after every two hours or so, or after more than one instance in a single day) I would request that she turn to someone else, point at me and ask, "Can you see her?"
Just to make sure I'm there. Because some one of these days, I won't be. If that happens and I don't notice... well then we'll know that it's easier than it looks to forget to confirm your existence with actual evidence. And I'll laugh at myself. Because at that point I deserve to be forgotten anyway.


I think that at field school I'll be a little glad to be away from instant messenger. Sure, I'll be cut off from a source of entertainment and communication. On the other hand, I'll know that everyone I'm talking to is talking back. The reason I try to reply to IM conversations and chats so quickly is because I'm trying to stave off one major fault of instant messenger: you know damn well no one is really paying attention to you. You know they all have something more important to do. Talking to you is something they do while waiting for a page to load or a CD to finish copying.

So... every now and again ask yourself. "Can they see me?"
Maybe they can't. Maybe they haven't for a while.

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