The Big Big World

Meave:

Blast this city and its weather. The humidity had ruined my hair. My long brown hair was no longer straight and instead, sticking grossly on my skin.

An hour and a half I had spent on straightening my hair had now gone to waste. I sadly sighed as walked towards the University Advising Building.

Arlo and I had made an appointment with our academic advisors. The reasoning being is to ask for help to plan out my courses for the spring semester and Arlo well, she was struggling with her grades.

All she told me was that she wanted to talk about her grades with the advisor to see if she could get into the engineering program. I didn’t want to ask what her grades were like, but I could see her discouraged from them. I wipe sweat from my brow and cursed the bloody humidity.

“What time is it?”. I ask Arlo as I try to put my hair up into a ponytail.

The hair on the back of my neck had stuck to my skin making it painful to detangle and put it up. I growled at the hair for being difficult with me and looked over at Arlo, who was looking down at her watch to check the time.

“4:55 pm”, she says as she continues to walk along the sidewalk.

My fingers were angrily fighting my knotted hair but I was finally able to tie it up. I relaxed my arms, content that my hair was now out of my face. I then smiled, realizing what time it was.

“Just in time, huh,” I said as we approach the administration building.

“a rare occurrence,” I said playfully.

I looked over at Arlo to see her scoff at my comment, as she reached for the door to let us in. She opened the door for me and as I walk in I thanked her.

The moment I walked in I was greeted by the cool breeze from the AC. I closed my eyes to appreciate the cool crispy air. If only it felt like this outside.

“What are you doing?” Arlo asked as she walked by me.

“You look weird,” she says stopping right in front of me.

I open my eyes to see the back of her braided brown hair.

“Whatever,” I say.

I left my pettiness aside and walked right by her, playfully bumping into her and turning my head to see her reaction.

Her body jolted forward and I saw her become annoyed. She lifted a nostril up as if something had smelled bad. That’s the face she would make whenever she was confusingly annoyed. I was content with her reaction.

I turned back around to continue to walk ahead of her when Arlo grabbed my arm. “

What?” I asked. Was she mad about me bumping into her?

“That’s the wrong way,” she said.

Oh.

I should have known, she’s not one to hold grudges. She let go of my arm and walked in the opposite direction. I turned my body towards her and followed her.

We continued to walk through the building until we found the academic advising department. Surprisingly, not surprisingly though, Arlo already knew where it was and we arrive exactly at 5:00 pm.

Arlo again opened the door for me but I wanted to ask her, “Have you been here before?”, as I walk towards the information desk.

“No.”, she quietly said. Gently closing the door behind her,

“Hmm.”, I responded, curious I tilted my head back towards her, “then how did you know how to get here?”.

Arlo let out a small sigh and explained, “When I opened the door to enter the building there was a map on the window. I glanced at it and found the room number of the academic advising department.” She said, behind me.

I straightened my posture as I approached the front desk and smiled as I look at the busy lady at the information desk who doesn’t seem to notice.

I always forget how observant Arlo is. She can remember the little details about anything, people, places, events, etc, yet she still struggles to remember how to solve equations.

For her, it was conceptual over the application and her conceptual learning would always dominate application learning.

However, when she knew how to apply the teaching, it would balance out. Her learning abilities were so interesting. It would take her an extreme amount of time to figure out problems, way too long for an average student.

Yet, somehow that eccentric brain of hers could retain any solved problem that she had done in the past, even from elementary school.

I really do believe she had some type of learning disability, but I wouldn’t know what to diagnose her with. I guess in simple terms she’s street smart, but academically I’m smarter.

Arlo and I stood by the desk as we waited for the lady to check us in for our advertising appointment. Still scrambling her papers the lady at the desk finally tilts her head to notice us.

“Ah, Hello, yes how can I help you?” she asks urgently.

“Umm my name is Meave Wells and I’m here for an academic advising appointment,” I respond, feeling that I was being rushed.

Arlo took her sweet time to respond and moves in closer to the desk, “Hi my name is Arlo Sone and I’m also here for an academic advising appointment as well.”.

She looks at both of us and then turns to her computer and begins typing. “Okay so academic appointments for Ms. Wells and Ms. Sone, for 5:00 pm.”. She asks us.

“Yes.” we both respond.

“Okay,” she said as she continued to type. “I have y’all checked in so if you could please sit down at those chairs behind you and wait for your counselors to come and get you.” We both thank her and took a seat in the chair.

“She seems stressed,” Arlos says as she stares at her.

“Very.”, I respond to her in the same manner.

I look over at Arlo who is still staring at the lady. “Are you nervous?” I ask her.

“Scared,” she responded soundly.

I shift in my seat and lean over towards her. “Why? I’m sure your grades are fine.” I say.

“Hardly,” she responded coldly.

It was quiet for a moment. A little too quiet. Then Arlo spoke, “I really don’t think this is the right path for me Meave.” Not evening looking up at me.

“Maybe this is a sign that I’m not cut out for this.”

I couldn’t help but stare at Arlo, realizing how she was a unique character. She said everything yet nothing at all.

Is she failing all her classes? Does she think she’s not good enough for this program? Is she thinking of majoring in something else, let alone dropping out?

I then took a deep breath. I couldn’t be stressed with someone else's problems, plus this is typical of her. Now I couldn’t understand but eventually, I knew she would tell me about her plans.

“I don’t think you should worry about that just yet, the advisors are here to help you,” I say assuring her.

She smirks as she shifts more comfortably in the chair. She turned her head towards me, “How about you? How do you feel?”. I look the other way embarrassed to say that I was nervous as well.

My grades were good, perfect in fact. I had a 3.8 GPA. All the late-night studying at the libraries and study areas really paid off, however, I was unmotivated. I hadn’t had a clue about what I wanted to do in life. What job or place I wanted to work at, and how much money I would want to make? At the moment I’m going through the motions and hope that the advisors will give me some advice.

I glance a little towards Arlo whos still dead staring at me and I look away. She always was so good at hiding her emotions.

I could hide my emotions at some points but today I felt off to the bone. Something didn’t sit right with me and it was affecting me so much that I was nervous about an academic advising appointment.

“Nervous.”, I say looking down at my hands.

“I really don’t know what to do with my life,” I say honestly to her.

“I guess we got that in common,” she says. “Hmm,” I responded, agreeing with her.

We sat in silence until Arlo’s academic adviser came in. When she got up she smiled revealing her cute dimples and waved at me wishing me good luck. Arlo’s smiles never failed to cheer me up.