The same problem

My Fashion Photo class, which is nearly over, is adjacent to Studio Main, where the biggest and best of the photography equipment is. As one of the few guys in a class heavily centered on notions of female attractiveness as presented in the media, the nature of the course has added to the usual difficulty I have in making friends among my classmates -- the usual difficulty being that I'm nearly a decade older than most of them, and actually pursuing a career in the subject, which sets me far enough apart from the other non-traditional students as to make friendship an impossibility. The older students typically have lives, and are just filling in the empty spots with classes.

There's a girl who works in the studio that I've been chatting with during breaks. She's attractive, sure, but I'm looking for friends these days, not sex options. She's scared about graduating soon, and I've made suggestions about networking groups she can attend to prepare her: events I go to, organizations I enrolled in. Last week, she told me she was dating someone. Look, I've told you. It's photographers that I'm looking for. It didn't matter.

My classes are going well (not as well as I'd like, but I've always tended toward unrealistic expectations), and the only thing really holding back my photo-assistant career are all the days I spend at school. So the only thing really lacking for me right now is friends.

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