Author Information
Without Expectations
Valeria Moreno A01193180
Daniel Ruiz A01193198
It was my first day of school and it was going very well until my last class, a class that I have every day, the guy that I have always feared entered the classroom looking superior and tall. He wasn’t very smart; this was his second time taking this class. On the second day I was unlucky that I bumped with him on my way to another class which I was already late for. As we crashed he glared at me with an angry expression and in that moment I thought he was going to kill me. I was trembling looking at him not knowing if I should run or ask for help. But luckily he just kept walking leaving me on the floor as if nothing had happened. Time passed and every time I walked into class I entered with fear of having him sitting next to me. People always murmured to others that he was a very bad influence and a rebel who was kicked out of his other school for bullying a boy. The semester passed by and on the final project the teacher was making the teams of pairs. I was praying not to be his partner, when suddenly I heard his name and mine was next. I felt like I was in a nightmare, I kept thinking on how he was going to make me do all of the work and he wasn’t going to do anything.
The time came when we finally had to get together to do the project in his house because he didn’t have a way to come to mine. Once there, he was very timid and serious, the house was in a very bad condition and it looked like it was abandoned. I tried to break the ice by asking if he liked sports but he looked like he was ignoring me. After a while he started to talk and it appeared like he had gained some trust in me and I asked him if his parents were home. A tear fell down from his eye, and he began telling me his story. Apparently his parents had abandoned him when he was young because they were very poor. So he had lived with his grandfather since then, the problem was that his grandfather was an alcoholic and he said it was like he was living alone. He said he felt depressed all of the time and this affected him on school when he tried to concentrate; therefore he was very timid and nervous when he tried to socialize. In that moment my perspective of him changed completely and I told him he had all of my support. Two hours passed and we didn’t even start the project but we have come to trust each other.
After that, we became very close friends and I started to motivate him and help him to improve on his grades. He made a great effort and he had very good grades and little by little he stopped being timid around people. He had become my best friend ever since then and he is one of the nicest people I have ever met. He taught me a very valuable lesson, to not judge people for their outer appearance because you don’t know whom they really are inside.
