A story of imperfection.
People are often making mistakes, but sometimes, even if you are not perfect, you can be special.
One year ago, during my senior year of high school, I applied for EVS. It was a choice made by instinct, and only after I sent the application I realized that that decision would have been one of the most important choices of my life.
During that time there was one person that was with me the whole time, someone that actually saw how I made that choice and how that choice was already influencing my everyday life. That person, S., was one of my schoolmates, we were sitting next to each other every day, and even if at the beginning we were not really friends, he would have early become the person that I would have miss the most after my departure.
In July school was finally over, we graduated, and we decided to go on holidays with a group of friends in an island not too far away from our hometown. The beautiful Italian landscape, the beach, the sun and the company of friends, however, were not enough to make that holiday perfect, that instead has been for me one of the worst holidays.
S. and me acted as stupids towards each other for the whole week and the last evening we ended up arguing. We were both wrong, we both did and said things we regret. As a result, once we went back home, we did not spoke to each other anymore. Weeks passed, my departure for Germany was getting closer and closer but nothing happened. That silence was killing me, in August I was more than sad, I was miserable. So I decided to put my proud away and I sent him a text in order to meet and clarify things between us but I did not get any answer. Until the last day I hoped, I waited for him to say something, even just ‘Goodbye’, but still nothing. On the 30th of August I left Italy. I was really angry to him and I was determined to forget him as soon as I arrived to Germany, but I did not.
My first months of the project passed: the job has been amazing, I met a lot of people, I listened to their stories, I experienced a lot of things and I changed a lot, but I was still not happy. I went through a really hard time, I had problems with my alimentation and with my self esteem and in the meanwhile I was still asking to myself why S. and I had left things that way.
At the beginning of December I realized that I was not even angry at him anymore, I was just missing him, too much. So I tried again and I sent him a text, just ‘Hey! How are you doing?’. Sending that little text was the best thing I could have done: in less than ten minutes he was already apologizing to me, and he promised that as soon as I would come to Italy for Christmas we would have met. That day was the happiest of my whole project until now.
In Christmas we met and it was weird having him again in front of me after so many months of silence. We forgave each other and now we are trying to make things work out even if we are so far away…and who knows what we will be in future!
I have learned that life is made of choices and mistakes, and we will always have to face some problem. But it is through those problems that we can understand what is important and who we are, and we take part in our own personal grown. Life is difficult, but that is what makes it SPECIAL.
S. never asked me to change, but he made me understand how to be the best of myself, and I am grateful to him for that. He was not always there for me during the project, but he was always WITH me. That is why he is not perfect, but he is SPECIAL to me.