[00:00.00]His first writing assignment
[00:02.29]revealed the fact that
[00:04.15]he liked me and that
[00:05.24]he hoped we could be friends,
[00:06.77]"very good friends".
[00:08.64] At that time neither of us
[00:11.15]suspected just how true
[00:13.12]that prophecy would eventually become.
[00:15.52]Inwardly, I just laughed.
[00:18.26]This was the first of several laughs
[00:21.54]that showed how little I understood.
[00:24.28]His presence permeated
[00:26.14] my classroom and my world.
[00:28.11]About a month later our lives
[00:32.92]began to intertwine and
[00:34.89]the delicately woven pattern
[00:36.86]of our lives began to become
[00:39.16]more intricate in the coming year.
[00:41.67]Relationships occur on many levels.
[00:44.84]Layer upon layer must separate
[00:48.57]in order for us to
[00:49.77]speak of inner feelings.
[00:51.52]It is up to the individual
[00:53.49]to analyze the variety
[00:55.57]of feelings at each level.
[00:57.86]As time passed, we shared
[01:01.37]our viewpoints and feelings
[01:03.22]through conversation while chatting
[01:05.08]over tea and coffee,
[01:06.40]arousing the emotion
[01:07.71]deep in our hearts.
[01:09.79]One day flowed smoothly into another.
[01:13.07]Familiar experiences for me proved to
[01:16.35]be exciting and stimulating for him.
[01:19.09]Western festival celebrations like Halloween,
[01:22.70]Christmas and Valentine’s Day
[01:26.09]provided an avenue to celebrate together,
[01:28.39]to share warmth and good times.
[01:30.25]Traveling to new places introduced me
[01:34.97]to an enticing new world.
[01:37.27]Every day there was laughter
[01:40.44]and underlying cares that
[01:42.74]carried both of us along
[01:45.03]to some degree of happiness.
[01:45.15]We learned together English and
[01:48.10]learned about life that year.
[01:50.40]Strangely the gap in our ages
[01:53.25]did not create any
[01:54.89]barrier for our friendship,
[01:56.42]he young and vital,
[01:58.28]and I was feeling young again |