Gemotions

Maya felt a familiar pressure in her chest as she scrolled through Instagram, another Tuesday evening dissolving into digital oblivion. Her feed, filled with filtered smiles and seemingly effortless lives, mocked her own inertia. She’d applied to the same two colleges last year, the same two again this year. Rejection letters, carefully crafted in polite, impersonal prose, piled up like fallen leaves. Then, a notification: "Mr. Harrison started following you." Her English teacher. Panic flared, a heat that prickled her skin.

She immediately opened his profile. Public, of course. Photos of him hiking, reading, posing with his dog, a life she perceived as defined. He had a few likes on her posts – her poorly-lit photography attempts, her rants about the absurdities of standardized tests. Did he see her failures, too? The constant, nagging feeling in her gut tightened, a knot she couldn't untangle.