My World Was Changed

When I was in secondary school, I met someone who I highly trusted academically. I saw him to be in the same boat as me and have the same kind of dream as I.

Even though we had the same dream, we still had different characters. Two people can never have the same characters, but would have the same thoughts?

As time went on, our friendship began to grow. One day, I introduced him to my dad and mom as my friend. They accepted him and he got my perspective towards life changed Anywhere we go, we must be with our books. His parents always knew about our friendship. He sleeps at my place usually and eats at my place as well. To me, there is something I don't like doing, and it has been part of my lifestyle. Eating at someone's house has not been part of me. Seeing him eat in my house gave me some thoughts that I did not seem like. I began to ask myself if I should eat at his place in return, but this question was off my head since it wasn't my lifestyle.

He has always eaten at my place, but I kept avoiding eating at his house, just because of my nature, instead I would give excuses that does not worth it. After a few months, I knew he had observed my character towards not eating in his house, so he stopped eating at my place. Anytime I was eating, he would observe me but not want to join me. I also had this critical issue within me: not telling him everything about me, whereas he had said all about his family to me. I never cared to ask him about not eating at my place; instead, I kept observing and doing what, I felt, was right for me.

Wendelin Jacober
One day, after some months of observing me, he called me and asked, “Guy, why don't you ask me why I stopped eating at your place? And why is your character so different?” I was just laughing at his questions and had just one answer to give. “To answer your second question, I would say it's part of me, and maybe I was born with this character of mine. To answer the second question, I wanted to ask but felt not as I knew what was running through your mind”.

“Why did you make me your friend when you knew you had these characters deep inside of you?” He wouldn't think twice before asking. I replied to him, "Because I knew we were perfect together and had the same dream”.

“Does that mean eating at your place was a mistake?”

I kept silent to his question. He kept repeating the same question, but then I had an answer to give. “I was raised this way, and I don't know how to change it”.

After the interrogation, he was angry and left. I was not worried at first, but later got worried as I felt I had lost my reading partner and best friend. My parents kept asking me where my friend was, but I kept giving them flimsy excuses.

He started ignoring me right in the school, but I did not beg him, but instead did the unexpected.

I went to his house when he was not at home. I met his mom and told her to prepare food for me—food that I was not hungry for. She was shocked to hear me say hungry. She asked me again if what I said was real, but then I repeated myself.

Likewise, she prepared a dish, which I ate. I don't know if his mom told him I came by, but suddenly, I saw him at my house with a mathematics textbook. We started studying again, just as before. I began to open up by telling him about my family, as he had told me from the very first day we met.

I'm not the type, but he made me blend into the system. It was just his rejection that made my heart change towards relating to people and mingling with others. My thoughts towards people were timid, but my friend brought me out of the dark into the immediate world. I began to see reasons for relating my family issues to people, as everyone needs help one way or another.

His dream of becoming an engineer was fulfilled, but I changed my mind just because of financial backup. Anyway, I enjoyed my recent career as a teacher. He had people who were ready to help him, but I only had my average parents struggling to put food on the table.

With all being said, my friend changed my life. The way I saw the world was different, and now it was the best option I had.