Today, I'd love to write about a friend of mine. She and I met at our porcelain painting class in Kyoto. She's already been learning with our mutual teacher for years, while I started learning from the same teacher about five years ago.
To be honest, my first impression about her wasn't good. She was rude and rather unfriendly. For example, when I asked our teacher about something I didn't understand well, she immediately told me, "Don't speak right now. I have to focus on what I'm doing now. Your high-pitched voice annoys me!". I was upset because I’d never had anyone speak to me like that before. I thought what a rude person she was.
Even though she was my classmate, I had kept a distance from her because of her attitudes. I didn't want to be involved in a high school-ish drama at all. I even didn't want to sit next to her. In short, I ignored her.
During being in the same classes with her, I gradually started figured out lots of things about her. She loves painting more than anyone, but she isn't good at it, even though she's been learning for years. She's been struggling and frustrating. She doesn't have enough confidence what she's doing, so she does something, but if she doesn't like it, she deletes it. She does it over and over again. Because of that, she's been way behind from others.
One day, when I saw her struggling, I gave her some tips because I'd experienced and gone through. Since then, she started asking me what and how things. Eventually, we started talking and getting along with each other. She told me that she needed time to get to know anything. When I heard that everything made sense. She wasn't a rude, mean person at all. She needed time to get to know me. I learned I also needed time to understand her.
Now, we are good friends. She and I love roses, and she has become one of my rose friends.
Today, I went to Kyoto to take our painting lesson. She brought two lovely gifts to me: a herb seedling and a rose cutting.
I'm truly grateful to have her in my life. Making friends isn't always easy and it might take time, but once you get to know someone, you can build a really meaningful connection.
Now, I've been growing my cuttings to share with my rose-loving friends. I'll give her some of them as a gift from those when they grow a little bit larger.
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Maybe in class she was frustrated with herself and wasn't acting like her usual self. I hope becomes proud of her paintings, I'm sure they're actually beautiful.
That was a rocky start to a friendship, but you were able to overlook her insecurities at the time to get to know her.
@via-chan She's frustrated in her classes is true, but she normally acts like that. She acts whatever she thinks without concerning. I really hope she'll come to proud of her paintings too! I've been keeping encouraging her.
@SEQ77 Yes. I am a easy going person and making friends is quite easy for me. I learned a lesson to make friends from her.
That's a lovely piece of writing. It can take time to get to know someone but it's worth it in the end.
Nice to meet you, @ruthb. Thank you for correcting and commenting. I totally agree!