The Art Of Living Beyond The Zone: Something, Something

 

As the author says, “It’s strange how someone sitting just a seat away can feel like both your universe and your biggest regret of losing her.”

🎞 Scene I: The Classroom - But My Mind’s Elsewhere

Sitting a few steps from her. The professor speaks of law, intent, and logic.

But my logic? It’s fading.

Because you’re sitting in the next row.
Just one row away.
Yet miles and moments apart.

You're close enough for me to hear your breath,
But far enough to never really know what’s going on inside your mind.

I’m looking ahead, but feeling sideways. Just in thought of you.

I know this zone. I created it.
A zone where I’m not supposed to care.
Where glances are accidents.
Where silence is something we never wanted.
Where, pretending not to notice you is my mistake, something that to which I punish myself.

💭 Scene II: The Unsaid-Said

We never talked much. Maybe once or twice or even more or don’t worry I will not be revealing that.

Some nods, a group laugh, that brief smile.
But the truth?
I’ve written entire chapters in my head, of conversations we never had.

In my mind, I’ve walked you to your residence gate.
In my imagination, I’ve asked you about your dream places to go to.
In this parallel universe of possibility,
We are... something, something that’s greater than our regret.

But here? In this classroom?
We’re just two roll seats apart.
And still so unspeakably distant.

✍️ Scene III: Ignoring, But Not Indifferent

I see you.
Every day.
The way you look at the board in the classroom.
The way you bite your lip when confused.
The way you tie your hair when the lecture gets serious or you.

I see it all.
And I force myself not to look.
Not because I don’t care.
But because I care too much.

It’s easier this way.
To act like you’re just another face in the crowd.
To ignore the feelings by burying them under the syllabus.

Because loving you out loud,
might mean losing the one safe space I’ve built:
the fantasy where we never became strangers.

🎧 Scene IV: Zoned In, Zoned Out

There are moments when the world blurs.
When your laugh cuts through the dullness of the lecture.
And I catch myself smiling, alone.
Lost in a zone where you and I exist in sync.

But then the teacher shouts, Hey raj!! where are you lost.
Reality returns.
You gather your books.
I gather my thoughts.

You walk out, unaware of the storm you leave behind.

☁️ Scene V: What If

What if I said something?
What if I leaned over the row and said,
“Hey… do you ever feel something unspoken between us?”

Would you smile? Would you laugh?
Or would you just blink, confused, and move on?

I think you will agree. But

Maybe it's better this way.
To let the unsaid stay unsaid.
To let love breathe in silence.

✨ Final Scene: The Art of Living Beyond the Zone

This zone, of control, of restraint, of buried emotions
It’s a comfort zone, yes.
But also a prison.

And yet, every day, I sit here, living beyond it.
Loving without a label.
Feeling without confirmation.
Existing beside you, quietly, fully, painfully.

Not because I’m weak.
But because this love, unsaid, unshown, unshaken
Is my way of being strong.

?? I don’t need a relationship to validate what I feel.

Sometimes, love lives in eye contact not made,
In messages never sent,
In moments remembered alone.

And that’s okay.

Because in the art of living beyond the zone,
You learn that some stories aren’t meant to be chapters.
They’re meant to be poems,
Written silently,
Lived fully,
And let go gracefully.

- Raj Patel Signing off!!
Still sitting one row behind.
Still writing. Still feeling. Still loving quietly.👤