Holden

God, don't I know what it feels like to be isolated from the world? Cynical and depressed. There's nothing I know better, actually.

Howell got to me today. I don't like people as a whole, but when it comes to the average person's emotions, as sad individuals, I'm nothing like I come off as or try to: Strong, unmoved, reserved, with a clear head. I can be the world's biggest nurturer and unfortunately incredibly emphatic. It made me so upset to see him with such a look of sadness and disdain on his face, that I could not help but to ask what was wrong so that I may have found some way to comfort him. Regardless the age and position of authority that divides students and teachers, I just couldn't help but seeing him as someone truly close to me at that moment. "Are you okay? Are you stressed? Is it Gifted stuff," I added, trying not to overstep my boundaries, and he said, "I'll show you." He then preceded to pull up a page for a respected cemetery for our countries' protectors and came to a name. Linda. His mother. It breaks my heart and I can't help not to cry. She died in July and he waited this long just to be able to get her buried there, with the full 21 guns ceremony and everything, in Washington. She didn't ask for all that, but he said her last wish was to get out of Salem, Alabama and that's why he did it. That's what tears me apart. He went through so much just to get her there, because of her last wish. It just makes me love him for her.