I never knew one person could have such a big influence on my life, or my emotions. I wasn’t the type to change for anyone, or anything. I always had a lot of friends, but never a lot of close ones. When I dreamed about the prospect, I always saw myself with that same hard-headed attitude that I had then. I just couldn’t see myself any other way. My parents were stringent, but I always managed to find my own friends. No person would have ever met their unrealistic, double standards of a friend. Part of me needed someone who was more in touch with the world than I was, who could understand me and the many disappointments of life. Three years ago I would have never alleged that one person can change you, but today I believe it more than anything in the world.


There is no way that us meeting was by chance. I was about to be in a relationship with his best friend, Michael, who would later play me. Michael sent me something off of his friend’s phone, Javier’s. He later texted me because wanted to give me some insight on Michael. He was talking to other girls while at the same time telling me he “loved me.” It wasn’t the worse thing I had ever experienced but it wasn’t pleasant getting played like that. I was thankful that Javier helped me out, because he didn’t have to. Javier and I continued to talk, because he was polite and genuinely concerned about me at the time. Our personalities seemed to click. It’s no surprise that we quickly became friends, or that I would learn to trust him so much in the weeks to come.


As we began to talk more and more our conversations got deeper, our friendship grew even stronger. He told me about why he had recently been in the hospital; it was due to some contemporary events that caused him to make him want to kill himself. We talked a lot about his situation and mine too. We helped each other get through the day. We got really close. He told me some of his life lessons, some I will never forget. We started to hang out all the time. He made me realize some of the friends I had were not really good for me, which was actually the majority of them. With his help I started to do things that were the best for me, not anyone else. He began to change me, but I still made mistakes.


I made one mistake that Javier warned me about ahead of time. He told me to be open with my parents about everything I do and that they would find out everything even if I did try to conceal things from them. He was right. They knew he was 19, they said it was fine that we were friends. They had an app on my phone that sent every text message I sent or received to their email. They saw the 5-hour phone calls that we sometimes had in the afternoon. They couldn’t listen to them, but they knew we talked for a long time. I guess they didn’t know that somehow Javier and I had gotten so close that I felt horrible if I didn’t talk to him for even half a day. I had made a twitter behind their back and they found it. I found myself in nuisance. My privileges to everything were taken away. I honestly died inside because I couldn’t really talk to Javier. So, I found my own ways to talk to Javier, off of friend’s phones in the morning and the house phone in the afternoon. My parents found out about that too. I couldn’t keep anything from them, but they certainly had a way of keeping things from me.


My parents decided that they were going to press charges on him if I continued to talk to him. I am not sure exactly what in their minds changed, but abruptly we weren’t just friends in their eyes. I pleaded my parents not to do this, do this to the relationship with someone I thought I would never have. We were nothing but friends, close friends. He changed my life so much in a diminutive amount of time that it was illusory. I couldn’t swallow the fact that someone that I absolutely needed in my life was going to be severed out of it. He didn’t deserve the charges; it would mess up his life so much if they were placed on him. I decided just to obey, I cut him out of my life. My parents won the battle, like they always seem to do. In the end parents will always have the higher authority, and the upper hand.


My parents don’t notice; if they do, they don’t care. It hurt me so much in ways that are still unexplainable. I dreaded going to school because I would drift off in a day dream that would stir my emotions once again. After a couple of weeks I couldn’t stand it anymore, so I started to go back to church. I talked to my youth leader about everything and he helped me decided how to deal with it. I finally found a point where I could start all over again. My old friends were still in the past, but made new, better ones. There was one friend in particular that helped me a lot. He would make sure I was okay almost every day, and I started believing I was. It is still very depressing that I was deprived of the only person who’s ever really changed me, but I’ve realized I would never trade meeting him for anything in the world. I still love him like a best friend, but sometimes it’s good to start a new chapter in your life.


Some people think that nobody will ever change the way they think or act, but one day someone will. When you least expect it, they will walk into your life and change it completely around before you ever really start to notice. I never thought someone could change me like this, but I also thought that many people would never walk out of my life. Truth is, many people will come in and out of your life, and some will change you. People may change you for the better or worse, but don’t underestimate the ability of others around you. If I have learned anything, it is to not get too attached because at one point or another everyone you’ve ever loved is going to change and leave you too. But do let yourself be changed for the better, because in the end everyone in your life is there for a purpose.