lesson for life.

"I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong."
-- Abraham Lincoln.

God!another English class! Mrs David is one of the best teachers around...but! BUT BUT BUT she prefers you working with a new partner each time! Man, assignments are hell...and dealing with yourself itself is a pain!I mean...SHIT HAPPENS!
I smile as I think of Mary " THE NERD " . My thoughts linger back to school days when I Learned 'A LESSON FOR LIFE'

10:35am Friday morning. David..oops David madams class has begun 5 min ago. Friday evening....Saturday.....SUNDAY...is just so close. WOW. 60 hrs later life will be cooler. "so whom have you chosen sweetheart? for your paper on William Wordsworth? ..or maybe i should help you get a partner Devangini..you don't look like you are with us". "oh..um mm yup madam i was just thinking.....Namrata and me share a perfect rapport mam".This is exactly what i want to decide...not let you decide..you know. LOOK children i want you guys to really work with new people...get to learn from different perceptions. so..Debi...you will pair up with Mary. Do we understand?"um..of course mam". OK so guys split up into your pairs and start working. SHIT HAPPENS. i had just made myself a topic for gossip! My popular group of friends were paired up with ...OK...decent people if not as popular..but what had happened to me was CRAZY,LUNATIC,STUPID STUPID STUPID.i caught Namz and Shenel and shalaka grinning at me. I made a WET-PUPPY-FACE at them. they broke into a loud laugh...almost a roar. i cursed my destiny!
I turned my chair to face Mary. she SMILED AT ME...HER UGLY BRACES SHOWING. her skirt was almost till her calf, hair plaited neatly and oiled, two dumb curls hung loose .... an irritating attempt to look stylish.her socks covered the rest of her legs, her blouse was at least xxxxl and hung loosely on her thin frame. She yelled fashion disaster. I realized i was staring and not smiling so it was rude...so i put up a smile. "Hey"..i said " how are you..um mm have never spoken but ...whose your favorite poet girl? mine is Maya Angelou." that was my first question to my later best friend!Every day i and Mary waited after class to work on our paper. beyond all that after knowing Mary i realized the ultimate depth of knowledge Mary had at this age! apart from being a great human being she was sooo humble about it! i still hung out with my 'popular' group but i felt an emptiness inside. Did i actually LOVE their judging people based on their perceptions? Mary was so sweet ....she never spoke about PEOPLE! i never liked it either? why was i behaving like i did?
The next time i spoke to Mary even during break, hung out with her on weekends to meet cute guys...or just for coffee and cookies..or just for assignments. Mary was so much like me inside i felt...alter ego. Mrs David says you must find one.
She made me be me. that's the biggest lesson for life. I will never forget this lesson. never let people play their games and use you as tools. if you keep judging people ..you will never find time to love them dearly. Mary was way beyond shallow things like make up..maybe. I could contribute in making her a better person and become a better person from her contributions. THAT'S FRIENDSHIP.
LOVE YOU MRS. DAVID.