The Unanswered Voice Note

Dear Delyara, The clock reads 2:25 AM, and I am sitting here staring at the small grey microphone icon on my phone, waiting for a response to a voice note I sent to an old university friend three days ago. The status shows it was delivered, but there is no indication it will ever be played. The reality of working consistent 6:00 PM to 6:00 AM shifts is that your social circle eventually shrinks to zero. You inhabit a completely different time zone than the rest of humanity; when they are awake and socializing, you are sleeping in a darkened room, and when you are desperate for a human voice, the entire city is fast asleep. This profound, structural loneliness makes you feel like an astronaut drifting away from the station on a broken tether. You start to lose your grip on how normal interactions function, leaving you stranded inside your own thoughts.