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[Alexandr Korol]

Recently I watched the film “Young Adult,” or something like that, with Charlize Theron. Strange kind of movie. In it, she returns to the town where she was born and meets a former classmate who walks with a cane, a bit chubby. And the film shows everything he does, what he works on in his garage, what his room looks like — though he’s already an adult man, he still has toys, little soldiers, things he sculpts. What’s interesting is that I always liked people like that character the most — I had friends like that in school. They always had clay under their nails and all kinds of little gadgets. They always loved computer games, had these quirky toys on their desk. And probably even today, they still have rooms like that, still like kids. There are just these distinct traits, factors — I don’t know how to describe it exactly — but there are people who... I’m not talking about entities right now. I’m talking about something else — imagine how you would feel, no matter your age now. Imagine it’s not about age. Let’s say you’re 25. You have no relationship, no family, you’re a free person, you’re 25. And then you meet a girl — or a boy — around your age. And imagine you’re fully aware of the current time, the 21st century, the year 2025. You know what people are like now, you know what your life is like, how old you are, and how you feel. At this point, you’ve already formed an impression of people. And now, imagine you’re 25 and you meet a boy or a girl — someone of the opposite sex — and you’re talking, and this person says, “Hey, let’s stop by my place real quick, I need to grab something.” So, you go to this person’s house, and in their room, there’s a cage with a talking parrot, and on the windowsill there’s a small ant farm. While you’re waiting for them to do something, you sit in their room, looking around. And then you notice a chest. And when they come back into the room, you ask, “What’s that?” And they reply, “That’s my memory chest.” And you’re like, “What?” “Yeah, memory chest,” they say, and they open it up and show you: “This is my first baby tooth. This is a valentine someone gave me in school. And this is a folding knife my dad gave me when we went fishing for the first time in Sweden. This is a four-leaf clover I found. These are collectible American coins. And this is a diary — I wrote it when I was a kid. And these are tickets I kept, from when I went to an Eminem concert — here’s his autograph.” And now imagine the scene further: you’re talking to this person, and above their desk are all these posters and odd little figurines. You ask, “What’s that?” And they say, “Oh, I dream of going to Nepal — this place here, I really want to visit.