He's Burnin' for You

Conversation happens for a variety of reasons. Whether it be bumming a cigarette or lighter, saying hello upon entry or breaking the ice because ten minutes in silence with a stranger can be nerve-racking, conversations emerge from the smoke huts not unlike bunnies continually emerge from rabbits.
Today, Micah just wanted a friend.
Micah, a native of Wolcottville, IN., moved to Fort Wayne last week to avoid pumping his paycheck into his gas tank for the 38 mile commute to IPFW every day.
“I just got a place near the bars downtown, and if anyone wants to hang out there that’d be awesome,” he said. “I don’t know anyone - seriously, it’s an open invitation.”
The lonely guy sat on the bench and chain-smoked as hutters shuffled in and out. He was in need of human interaction - which became painfully obvious when he began to recite the same stories over and over.
“I’m just trying to pay my bills and this guy comes into my work and just says he’s gonna murder me. All I said was ‘okay,’” he started.
“Fort Wayne is huge. I’m used to directions like ‘next to the corn field on the left,’ not certain intersections,” Micah continued.
He began discussing Indiana gun laws - self defense, whether or not people could be shot in the back, what permits were needed to check out hand guns, etc. Afterward, he brought up crime in Fort Wayne; coming from a small town he thought the level and intensity of crime was enormous.
“I’m just trying to pay my bills and this guy comes into my work and just says he’s gonna murder me. All I said was ‘okay,’” he started again. It was a continuous loop.
There’s no shortage of interaction in college - many people have multiple classes a day where there’s an opportunity to engage in discussion, create small talk and get to know people - though it seems to be largely academic-based chit chat until everyone goes their separate ways. The smoke huts bring people of all backgrounds together over one common interest and there are limitless possibilities to gain things outside of academia: friends.
Micah left the hut - finally - with hand shakes, names, promises to hang out and people that he may end up knowing for the rest of his life. People that he might have drudged past on the way to class without so much as eye contact stopped to talk over burning paper, and a lonely new resident doesn’t feel so lonely anymore.