Gemotions

The cafeteria food tasted like cardboard, a fitting metaphor for the day. He picked listlessly at the tasteless pasta, the plastic fork scraping against the plate. The news had hit him like a physical blow. The scholarship, a lifeline in a turbulent sea, was gone. A misallocation.

He watched the other students, their faces alight with conversation, oblivious to the turmoil brewing within him. He felt disconnected, marooned on a solitary island. He slowly pushed his tray away, the sudden loss of appetite mirroring the loss of his momentum.