Author's Note: I wrote this ages ago, so long ago that I don't really remember writing it. I don't know if I ever had a Doctor in mind, but if I did I certainly don't remember who it was now. So I'm curious: which Doctor do you imagine when you read it? Let me know!

It's a warm, sunny day, and you're sitting in a park trying to enjoy the nice weather while it lasts. You're perusing the help wanted ads in the newspaper, highlighter in hand, marking ones that catch your interest. Eventually you sigh and throw the paper on the bench you're sitting on. Life hasn't been going quite the way you expected recently.

You've just graduated from university. Your parents are very proud, even if they have reservations about your major. You understand their fears- you've read about them often enough, after all, and maybe it wasn't the most practical thing to study, but it made you happy. You knew you could make it. Or at least, you thought.

You knew it wasn't the easiest career path to get into, but this is getting ridiculous. You've been calling every place you can think of, been through too many job interviews to count, but it's always the same. There's always a reason, and it feels like you've heard them all. You've taken a job at the department store near your flat in the meantime. It's very tedious work, but it pays the bills, and it's the best you've got until you find someone else willing to hire you.

You groan in frustration, rubbing a hand over your eyes as you think about your options. A shadow suddenly falls over you, and you look up to see a man standing in front of you. He gestures to the other half of the bench, the part where you put your paper, and says, "May I sit?"

"Of course," you say, and hastily try to move the paper out of his way, but he's quicker, and snatches it before plopping down next to you and flipping through it. You find it a bit rude, but decide not to say anything.

"So," he says when he gets to the page with your handiwork on it, "Looking for a career change, are you?"

It seems strange for a random man to want to talk to you so much. You look him over suspiciously. He's a bit weird- his clothes are odd, and his hairstyle a bit more daring than what you usually see around here, but it's his eyes that are the true anomaly. They look ancient, like he's lived a thousand years and seen it all, but yet he's still managed to stay so impossibly kind. Before you know it, you find yourself telling him all about the past few months, your hopeless job search, and your worries that maybe you're just not good enough. Maybe no one wants you because you're too normal- there must be dozens of applicants out there more extraordinary than you are.

He hasn't interrupted the entire time you've been letting everything off your chest, and speaks for the first time as you finish with your final fears. "Now, I don't believe that. Some of the most extraordinary people in the universe started out with rejection before they found the right opportunity." He pauses, as if collecting his thoughts.

"You may not believe it, but you are special. Everyone has their talents, and maybe you don't have the same experience with yours as others do with theirs. But with time, you'll get better. And I do believe that without failure, we wouldn't truly value success. So perhaps you haven't found that success yet. But someday you will, and you'll value it much more than the person who found it on their first try. And you will remember your failure, and learn from it, and be that much better of a person from it. You understand?"

You nod, a bit bewildered with how philosophical your conversation has become.

"Wonderful!" He smiles at you, then suddenly flinches. He reaches into his pocket, much farther than what you would have thought his pockets extended to, and pulls out a strange looking device that's vibrating rather violently. It lets off a bit of blue smoke, and the man frowns before stuffing it back into his pocket. He gets up from the bench and hastily hands the paper back to you. "Well, that would be my cue to leave. I'll be looking forward to seeing your success in the future." He says this in a very odd tone, but you don't think too hard on it, considering how odd of a man he seems to be. "Oh, and check page twenty three. I think you'll like what you find."

You flip through the paper to the indicated page. There's an ad you hadn't noticed before, circled in a beautiful bright blue ink. It's... it might be just the thing you're looking for! You look up, intent on thanking the man, but you find that he's nowhere in sight. That was quick.

And you hadn't even caught his name...