A Natural Record

Midday after the day's classes ended, I paced my stride, heading toward home.
I heard the shuffling of feet on the rocky pavement that travels down the endless walkway along the university's astute buildings. Old and new buildings sit by each other with a stark difference in atmosphere emitted from the clashing of old and modern urban themes of the city of Austin.
Instead of inserting my headphones in, I tune my ears to the free streaming provided by the noises of the life presenting itself to me.

A professor walks briskly out of a Starbucks coffee shop as she noisily sips on her latte between office hours. Her face wears a worried look.
A cashier from the corner Chipotle location shuffles out the trash from the morning shift, wiping his forehead with a rag damp with sweats of stress and anxiety. A disgruntled sound muffles out of his mouth. "Dammit."
A Christian-based fraternity group sits outside the patio beside the student center, hastily chatting excitedly about the upcoming retreat while being surrounded by student organization booths with young college kids advertising "Free Food, Free T-shirts, Free Fun" to passerby students who either politely decline the offer or accept the flyers.

I hit pause on the playlist as my attention flickers to a sign plastered on the student news post. It reads "Upcoming Varsity Show. FREE Event!" with a picture of a diverse student group, smiling enthusiastically back at me. I stare at the post, hoping to feel an interest spark from the remote advertisement. However none arose at the moment.

Not too far from where I stood, the chiming of bells ring through the air, disrupting my out-of-space moment. My curiosity faces a dead end when I turn my head around only to see the continuing streams of students and faculty roaming to their destinations. The sound of chimes continued to glisten through the air, making my new priority to find its source.

I peer around me, making a whole 360 degree turn, but no instrument is visible. Suddenly, I feel a vibration on my right jean pocket. I fumble my hand in my pocket, feeling a crumpled receipt and sticky Jolly Ranchers wrapper. My fingers wrap around the edge of my cell phone and pull it out. I open it to find a text from a friend who invites me out to a concert featuring one of my favorite bands "Young The Giant" happening downtown tomorrow evening. The text is in all lowercase except for hash-tag "YOLO" (as if capitalizing it would convince me to attend). I reply with a simple "sure" and then scroll down the keypad to schedule a reminder on my calendar.

I pitch my phone back into my pocket and then decide to plug back in my headphones attached to my iTouch to listen to the band's first record, simply titled "Young the Giant". Before placing the buds in, I take one last look around me. The student community continued to shuttle past me in hurry to get classes, home, or work. The chime bells had stopped already. I took a deep breath and then immersed myself back into a world shut from the orchestra of life.