Book of D: The Man at School

I arrived in the parking lot, looking for that prime spot; you know the one, the one that requires the road less traveled. Pardon the pun. Anyway, I was in a good mood as I approached the front doors of the university, where I have worked for over a year. I passed this one gentleman; he was wearing the dark blue uniform the maintenance workers wear. He was an older man with grey, curly hair sprawling from underneath the dirty-looking gray baseball cap he wore; the cap was slightly placed to one side--it looked like an unintentional way of wearing the cap. Not like a younger person would purposely wear it to show he/she was cool. This gentleman looked tired, thus, the manner in which he wore the ball cap was more happenstance than purposeful. I consider myself a friendly person. I also consider myself as having a great amount of confidence, so I tend to walk with my head held high, but I am always aware of others, so I make myself ready to greet others in a friendly manner. This gentleman was not having any of my friendly ways. He completely ignored me. He did look up one time as I was getting closer to him, but he looked back down to the can of Dr. Pepper he had on the concrete pony wall he was sitting on. I was not hurt by his lack of a greeting. I did not know him, after all, so it did me no harm either way. It was how his eyes glared at me that was more disconcerting than his ability to act like I was invisible. I was reminded of another gentleman, around this man's age, body type, and stature. This other gentleman had given up soda to better his health, so when I noticed the can of soda next to this maintenance worker's lap, I thought to myself, 'soda is so bad for you especially for someone your age.' What if this maintenance worker had the ability to read minds and knew the first thought that entered my head before I drew closer to where he was sitting down. Who knows. All I know is the feeling I had when I passed by him. I was sad. I wondered if he was sad. I entered through the front, glass-laden doors of the university and started towards the stairs. I quickly forgot the emotion of sadness the maintenance worker had brought out in me. I instead focused on the work I had to finish today. I just hope the man is doing okay. Maybe I should have made it a point to say hi to him instead of respecting what I thought was his right to be left alone. Maybe he was waiting for someone to ask him how he was doing.