The Road Less Traveled (Prof./Student)

Chapter 39 - Invisible distance

It turned out that, because our course was rather small, everyone got a room for themselves. Which was good, didn't get me wrong, but that meant that the hurry was literally for nothing.

Another thing that did contribute to my bad mood was the choice of literature. It was from Mrs Webber who was famous for being a hopeless romantic and who, of course, couldn't miss the opportunity of forcing us to deal with a romantic novel. 

But it was not the book itself, that was my problem but rather the fact that, somehow, you always have to deal with books that fit to your current miserable life situation. As if reading another person's misery would magically help me with my own.

The story, in a nutshell, was basically about a woman and a man who were in love but they were having a bad fight. The man screwed up and asked for her forgiveness. She gave in but later on she changed her mind and they went separate ways.
The key theme of the novel was the question of forgiveness. 

What a coincidence that I had to spend the next five days analysing this role of forgiveness in the context of love when I was in a kind of similar situation right now?

I was really curious if someone could tell me why it happened that somehow, I never had to deal with a happy comedy if everything seemed to work in my life for once. 

But because you only gott to deal with the sad stuff of life, I was sitting in my room, reading and underlining passages as a preparation for the group work and discussions that were waiting for us on our second day tomorrow. 

I was definitely looking forward to that.

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I really tried to approach the next day with more positiv thoughts. During breakfast, I sat with Marco and his friends. It was actually very funny as they didn't like the topic of this trip either and started making up jokes or little scetches. 

After that, we had the first discussions about the characters, their relationship and the problems they're facing throughout the novel until it was time for lunch. 

I explicitly tried to avoid looking for Alex. When he was not with us working, I had seen him only once with the other two professors Mrs Webber and Mr Martin, which was already enough. 

Later that day, we started the first talks about forgiveness and what opinions we had regarding the woman's choice. Was it right that she forgave him or not? Why did she change her decision and what did this mean for the overall context and the storyline? Bla bla bla.

It was quite hard to concentrate at this point and no one really had anymore ideas. Sighing, Mrs Webber closed the book and said:

"Okay, I think it's best if we stop here and take a little break. We'll meet again in the evening. Until then, I'd like that you make up your mind a little bit more about the overall situation. Imagine that you are in a fight with a person you really love. They apologize for their behaviour and want your forgiveness. Are you still angry? Now, I want you to think and prepare an answer for this question. If your loved one asks you if you're angry, what would you imagine would be your response. I think, through this little exercise you get a better understanding of the whole conflict and find a connection to the story. So, go now and I'm excited what answers you're going to come up with!"

As she talked about love, my gaze unconciously traveled through the group and stopped at Alex. But, already a second later, I quickly shifted my head and looked into a different direction as soon as I registered that his eyes turned towards me as well. Nevertheless, he had noticed. I could feel his eyes on me and my throat felt dry and tight.