On a particularly rainy day, when the city embodied the unforgiving environment I had constructed with my perceptions of my social life, out of which no friendships could hope to arise and survive, I met Sam. We were freshmen in college, and we walked into the class from the rain in the midst of a hurried crowd. The class was a requirement that had nothing to do with either of our interests, as I learned from our brief but direct chit-chat when we sat down.
