George Washington Unviversity Freshman

It's not that they look ingenuine. It's just that there's something not quite right, like a sweater that's too big on a small kid. Except that's not it. Their clothes are stunningly expensive, perfect in every way. No, it's how they hold their props. Their cigarettes and bookbags: they grab them gingerly as if they might be crushed. The bags are over packed and they barely puff on the cigarettes, instead letting them burn down like acrid incense. Unsureness. It's not insecurity, not at this the most expensive university in the country. But it's heartbreaking.

I know in like fifteen minutes they will all have their collars popped and will be vomiting on my shoes in Adams Morgan and I will want to have them all deported to work camps in Nevada, but just for this one moment, I remember when that unsureness was my own.