How long does it take you to get close to someone? Truly close, I mean. Science hasn’t answered this question yet. Maybe it will never do it.Humanity is a big thing. We are all different. There’s not a way to established how much we fit, how much we laugh with a good friend. How much we cry when they are gone. And if, in fact, it really exists a complex mechanism to get to the deepest part of us… Well, don’t tell me how it works. I don’t want to know. Some secrets should stay hidden forever.

I got close to a few people during my time as a volunteer. Some of them brought some light when everything was dark. Others were good company to have a beer, but that’s all. Another one just breayed me. Today I’m going to talk about that black sheep everyone sees in the middle of the flock but no one really looks at. You can feel he’s different, maybe because your eyes are made from another type of glass. Maybe because his reflections hits you harder.

Daniel’s been more than a tutor for me. He’s become my friend, a partner who’s taught me there’s always good. One of the few people I know who can find the beauty in the sorrow. The most impressive fact is that he does it in such a natural way. Nothing feels artificial, like when someone tries deribately to leave a mark on you. He finds a place in your heart even without being aware of it.

Daniel is shy. I can remember perfectly the first time we saw each other. It was a cold Polish morning, probably November. I got to the school after rushing like hell (that’s, for sure, one of my multiple defects: procastination). We shaked hands and he offered me some coffee. The hottest coffee in the whole world. Was it to keep me enterteined? I don’t think so, but the thing here is that, after saying some words, it came the silence. I guess it was for just some seconds, but they felt like hours. Then I told him how much I love children and we both smiled. Conversation was fluent from that. We’ve found out in just a moment our passion was the same. We already had a connection.

Even with the difficulties and organizational problems they had at the school, we found a way to stay in touch and share some stories from time to time. Actually, I would say it was the perfect excuse. I met our best common friend after Christmas. He introduced her to me coldest day of that winter, when I was leaving the school and also wondering how to get home without freezing. I heard a ‚beep’ behind, I looked back… And there she was. By that time, I couldn’t imagine how far we would get with her relentless help. I’m talking, of course, about Daniel’s van. Grey body, small wheels but big size, pretty old although not too much… Yes, it was pure beauty.

She took us to the coolest places: a river where never rains (well, that was the theory…), three crowned mountains on which you could even touch the sky, a wild forest hidden on the top of a hill… Many places, many adventures, but always the three of us.

But everything ends. It’s hard to say goodbye, even harder when you love what you are leaving behind. In times like these I use to write some words, like a reflection. Like a memory who reminds me what I saw, what I felt, what I lived. Nothing lasts forever but a song. This is Daniel’s.

Daniel is here
Never gives up
Picking some flowers
Under the sun

Daniel is crazy
Just a little bit
Swimming through the woods
Some children with him

And I know I will keep all these pictures tattooed on my skin
Memories from an eternal sunshine I was lucky to live

His heart is bigger
Than Metropolis
But there’s a difference
No slaves in it

He changes the dark whip
For a white paddle
So then he can windsurf
With you until the end

There’s a voice in my head that says I will never forget him
Now the pain and the fear hit my bones for the day I leave this
I can feel the beautiful smell the old van gives off
In which we both travelled and learnt what life is made for

Dzieki for being here
De nada you’ll say
If someday the time comes
I’ll be waiting in Spain