Life has not once taught me lessons how to appreciate friendship and value its presence. I have always been surrounded by people unique in their own way; people who taught me tolerance and patience, gave wisdom and guidance, showed me the art of listening to others. While all of them have had their input in my personality growth, some have remained my best friends forever. And there are endless stories that have shaped our friendship. But I would rather recall one from my childhood.
A Saturday evening my Mom invited our new neighbors to our place. She said that it was a lovely young woman and her smart son, Dimitriy. Being the only child in the family I was extremely excited to meet a friend to play. In the evening the door bell rang and I ran to open it. It was the beginning of a great friendship I cherish till now.
My little guest was very unusual: it was a ten-year-old boy hardly looking three. But what made him so different was not the unusual appearance, but rather the unusually mature personality that lived in that little body. Smart, fun, initiating, he was very well-read and versatile.
We played together, ate together, watched TV and sang carols together. But outside the house Dimitriy's world was limited. We could not play volleyball or soccer: his bones were fragile and at high risk of being broken. Dima moved only on a special tricycle. Children in the neighborhood would avoid him, some even afraid of. Being sensitive about it Dima preferred to avoid the real world outside. This bizarre and unreasonable discrimination irritated me... If only they had the chance to talk to him, to discover his amazing scope of knowledge and charming personality. If only they knew how fun he was...
I put a goal to help my friends in the neighborhood to see and know the 'Dima person' and not the 'Dima child'. Expanding the circle of Dima's friends was not so easy: too long had he been isolated. First a few words, than a casual game, and Dima little by little would adjust to his newly emerging relationships. Sometimes in the playground he was being so stubborn that we would even forget about his disability and quarrel with him on equal. But that was exactly what he needed ï to be treated like anybody else. He hated sympathy because he did not feel sorry for himself.
Time passed and Dimitriy moved to another country where he could receive qualified medical treatment and live a better life. I miss him a lot. It was a friendship that benefited both of us. I learnt about compassion and kindheartedness towards those people who by destiny are different. You need to open your heart and accept them the way they are. These people can be very unique. They become spiritually more sophisticated, tender, understanding, and surprisingly optimistic. All you need is to be open enough to knock into their world and guard them against the cruelty and heartlessness of the surrounding world; to penetrate into their heart and offer a true friendship, for it is blessing.
A Saturday evening my Mom invited our new neighbors to our place. She said that it was a lovely young woman and her smart son, Dimitriy. Being the only child in the family I was extremely excited to meet a friend to play. In the evening the door bell rang and I ran to open it. It was the beginning of a great friendship I cherish till now.
My little guest was very unusual: it was a ten-year-old boy hardly looking three. But what made him so different was not the unusual appearance, but rather the unusually mature personality that lived in that little body. Smart, fun, initiating, he was very well-read and versatile.
We played together, ate together, watched TV and sang carols together. But outside the house Dimitriy's world was limited. We could not play volleyball or soccer: his bones were fragile and at high risk of being broken. Dima moved only on a special tricycle. Children in the neighborhood would avoid him, some even afraid of. Being sensitive about it Dima preferred to avoid the real world outside. This bizarre and unreasonable discrimination irritated me... If only they had the chance to talk to him, to discover his amazing scope of knowledge and charming personality. If only they knew how fun he was...
I put a goal to help my friends in the neighborhood to see and know the 'Dima person' and not the 'Dima child'. Expanding the circle of Dima's friends was not so easy: too long had he been isolated. First a few words, than a casual game, and Dima little by little would adjust to his newly emerging relationships. Sometimes in the playground he was being so stubborn that we would even forget about his disability and quarrel with him on equal. But that was exactly what he needed ï to be treated like anybody else. He hated sympathy because he did not feel sorry for himself.
Time passed and Dimitriy moved to another country where he could receive qualified medical treatment and live a better life. I miss him a lot. It was a friendship that benefited both of us. I learnt about compassion and kindheartedness towards those people who by destiny are different. You need to open your heart and accept them the way they are. These people can be very unique. They become spiritually more sophisticated, tender, understanding, and surprisingly optimistic. All you need is to be open enough to knock into their world and guard them against the cruelty and heartlessness of the surrounding world; to penetrate into their heart and offer a true friendship, for it is blessing.
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