Someone Else

Not being able to travel makes you think about why you traveled. And one reason to travel is that you want to be someone else. Life is full of moments that allow you to try to be someone else. Even a night at a bar can be an opportunity. You get drunk, talk about things you otherwise wouldn’t talk about, tell a different story about who you are and where you’re going. For a while you might even believe it. 

Right now you can get drunk and pretend to be someone else but you have to do it at home. It’s less fun. I’ve spent a lot of quarantine reading books and watching movies. They fill a similar need. They explain – at least sometimes – ways that other people live. 

One of the things coming out of the pandemic is that people are starting to experiment with different ways to be. Maybe this is naïve, but I feel like people will come out of it kinder, more generous. They’ll try to do more for others. Maybe that won’t happen but I hope it will. We’ll certainly come out of it different, might as well be for the better. 









Davis MacMillan is a writer living in New York. He’s had work in Wigleaf and Jellyfish Review.

See more of his work in 8.3