Icouldsensethathewasinanewworld， ’tberighttopushhim， ’tneedapeptalk； ， myfirstinteractionwiththeboyunderthetreewasover.
Atlunchthenextday， ， sittingalone， ， Itriedagain， withthesamequestionsasbefore： “Howareyoudoing？ Areyouokay？” Towhichheagainreplied， “Yeah， I’’treallygetintothisstuff.” AsIleftthecafeteria， IrealizedthiswasgoingtotakemoretimeandeffortthanIhadthought—ifitwasevenpossibletogetthroughtohimatall.
Thateveningatournightlystaffmeeting， .
， beforeIknewit， mid-weekhaddissolvedintothefinalnightofcamp， andIwaschaperoningthe “lastdance.” Thestudentsweredoingalltheycouldtosavoreverylastmomentwiththeirnew “bestfriends”—friendstheywouldprobablyneverseeagain.
AsIwatchedthecamperssharetheirpartingmoments， ， whohadstaredblanklyoutthekitchenwindow， ， intimatetimewithpeopleatwhomhecouldn’’tbelieveitwasthesameperson.
InOctoberofmysophomoreyear， -spoken， unfamiliarvoiceaskedpolitely， “IsKevinthere？”
“You’retalkingtohim， who’sthis？”
“ThisisTomJohnson’？”
？
“Yes， Ido，” Isaid.“He’？”
Anabnormallylongpausefollowed， ， “MyTommywaswalkinghomefromschoolthisweekwhenhewashitbyacarandkilled.” Shocked， Iofferedmycondolences.
“Ijustwantedtocallyou，” shesaid， “.”
Inthatinstant， ， andwhenIdo， Iurgeotherstolookoutfortheirown “boyunderthetree”.
在大一生活结束的那个短暂的暑假里，我受邀到密歇根州一所大学主办的高中领导才能夏令营担任辅导员一职。我曾参加过很多大学教育活动，因此便欣然接受了这次机会。
