My New Friend or How Tricky is it to Break the Walls of Silence…

I love making friends. I love meeting new people. I love talking. Someone who knows me personally knows that very well how hard it might be to escape from my flexible tongue! ;-P If you prefer actions to words, then do not bother me! (Just kidding). Well, sure I am sometimes really quiet. I love the silence of happiness when no words are necessary.

Yesterday (forgive me for my delayed joy report, please!) I met a new person. A big man who is ten years old. He came with another student of mine who’s nine years old and his 85-year old granny who sings in our church. My first impression was “what a hard nut to crack!”.  This boy was hardly saying anything. He was obviously excited and afraid. Maybe my “strange being” also scared him. Well, I hope not only. ;) Well, children who meet me for the first time (just like maybe most grownups but they are great actors!) are either shocked by my strange body shape and can’t help staring at me and it seems like they are eating me with their big eyes or they simply avoid looking at me at all. My new friend was the one who preferred to hide his scared look away. He was super closed. I’d say he was like a locked door no one can ever open. I was almost ready to give up…but thanks to his friend and our funny English exercises and a competition I made for them, my new friend finally opened the windows of his soul to me…Well, not really but even a bit meant a lot to me! He was almost looking at me without any fear. I’d even say he got curious about me, the way I hold my pen and write.

In the evening I got the greatest shock ever – my phone number started to mew (my lovely ringtone!) and I saw an unknown number…I expected everyone – my new work colleague, my secret admirer or even our dear President…BUT I heard a familiar voice of…my new friend. He was bravely talking to me, asking me how I was and telling me that he made it home safe…

I’m grateful for breaking this hard wall of silence. I’m grateful for  a new cute student and maybe even a friend. He’s just ten. Tries to seem cool. He’s scared. He lost someone very dear last year.

I know I am not so good at talking with kids. I sometimes feel lost. But what helps me is that I am myself often a big kido. I am grateful for that too. I am not always a boring big girl.