Judging a book by its cover

Let me describe a friend of mine. She is Asian. Not much taller than I am but quite skinny. She smiles a lot. When she talks, she talks with a very soft voice, like she is unsure. She speaks Spanish but it is not really perfect. She hardly speaks English. She is learning how to dance flamenco but she is not exactly there yet. Can you picture her? Honestly, she does not seem like a strong personality to me. Not at first.

(My) Lessons learned: never prejudge, never underestimate.

We had coffee last night and she started telling me her story. She has been living in Spain for one year. She came here alone without knowing how to speak a word of Spanish. She has been moving from one city to another. In each city, she searched for her own apartment without having anyone to help her. She did not know anybody but she is not afraid to make friends despite of her not-so-perfect Spanish.

She is not afraid of learning something new. She studied to be a cook. Now she is planning to move to another city in Northern Spain just to learn how to cook in a special cook school. She does not know how long she will stay here yet. She will know when enough is enough. She also needs to work for her money otherwise she will not have enough.

She said much more but this should be enough. She told the story very lightly and as always with a smile on her face. I explicitly said to her that I love her story. It sounded so strong and adventurous.

Lessons learned for me: never prejudge, never underestimate. I love people who fight for their lives in a positively persistent manner. Hats off. Proficiat.