Dustin Erhardt

Humans

I just got back from Taco Bell.

Taco Bell is a funny place. The employees are always very happy to see you and chat for a minute, or else they are very short and disconnected. There’s not really a middle ground.

Next to me, there is a kid in a baggy basketball jersey and all-white Nikes. He’s practicing some dance moves that his friend taught him earlier that day, and his older sister tells him to stop hopping around the restaurant and apologizes to me. I tell the kid not to listen to her, I think he looks great.

I was waiting for my taco. I glanced up and saw another guy standing near me, also waiting for a taco. “What kind of shoes are those?” He asks, and points to my feet.

This is when we start to have a conversation about shoes. He told me how he normally wears really wide shoes, but lately he is really into smaller shoes like TOMS, Lakais, Tigers. That’s why he noticed my Diesels.

I told him that I used to be the same way.

You should have seen his eyes, they actually lit up when we started talking. It was like he was starving for some kind of friendship, a connection, someone with a mutual understanding, and maybe I was too. We got our tacos, and I told him it was cool to meet him. 

I love people, more and more every day that I’m alive. Obsessed. I want to hear their stories, watch their eyes dart back and forth when they talk. I want more friends than I can handle. I want to be the guy who hangs out with every single type of person there is.

I’m trying to start up a business. I’m trying to make good music. But more than anything else, I need people. Whatever I do in my life, it needs to be about people. Helping them, loving them, recognizing them. Maybe even letting them help me sometimes. 

I love humans.