Essay

Inside the room, there was no one. Only a few candles flickering and the woods burning in the stove were brightening the room. Nice warm air flew out from the stove. But there was no one beside me. On every wall, colorful papers with some words written on covered the entire wall without leaving any space. Soon, my eyes were unwittingly pinned on a dull piece of white paper among them, and it read, “Saying love is like the enormous night sky pouring­ out myriads of massive stars at once.” It was just another hackneyed poetry talking about love. My eyes again, unwittingly moved onto the next lines, “glaring brightly even in the total darkness.” Eww… Disgusting. Why are people always so obsessed with love? I couldn’t look at it anymore and quickly stepped back from the wall.

I kept on thinking “who was she?” She was a big fan of stars including other celestial beings in the sky. She was an astronomy teacher but I had never taken her astronomy class. The only class I took from her was counseling. During the class, her topics were about dream, love, and life. She was very interested in her students. She wanted to know what they wanted to become in the future or what was troubling their life. She sometimes went over-repeatedly so that I slept or studied other subjects, which was better to be finished as soon as possible. When I looked around her room, I was always able to see those good-will messages written on each colored paper. They were mostly consistent with what she said in the class. Such positive messages as “To dream and love” and “There contains a small universe inside you” seemed to encourage some students. They soon became happy as if they were strongly touched by an inspiring word they have never heard before. However, for me, it neither made me happier nor inspired me with some new striking thoughts. They were rather just cliché that I heard from every place. I knew life didn’t always proceed in a good way. I stayed rational and logical so I could find the best way to deal with given situations because I knew optimistic way of thinking rarely helped.

The other day when I went into her room, just like the last time, there was no one. But, there was a picture of a smiling woman that was placed on some kind of a small desk. After a few moments, a girl came into the room crying. She and I were standing in front of that picture. She was just standing there crying with her eyes closed. After she went out, I looked at the wall and found that those messages were still there. Suddenly, a small teardrop fell on my face. Those words seemed beautiful as they were.