Mark showed up in our class when I was in my third year of college. He looked ugly, stood out overweight, redheaded and lopsided, and even freckled. He was rumored to be from a wealthy family. He had done something wrong in the capital and his mother had sent him to us, to the North, to be re-educated.
I can’t judge how impudent or boorish he was, but there must have been something behind his mother’s action. He did not do well in his studies. As we say here, he got one or two Ds and a C. You can’t call him a crammer. I didn’t see a zeal for knowledge in him.
Every student worked hard to earn good grades for his scholarship, because parents always gave the last of their children, so they wouldn’t go hungry. Mark, on the other hand, had plenty of money.
He was throwing it away everywhere. Some time passed and word got to the North that his mother was doing poorly in business. The situation in the country had changed. Mark, on the other hand, didn’t think about it and didn’t limit himself in any way. He continued to deny himself nothing. He kept asking his mother for money over the phone, even though she asked him to be more frugal.
Once again he received a parcel, for the delivery of which he himself paid – he emptied his pockets. They say he even borrowed it. He brings it to his room, and there’s a surprise inside. He was expecting presents from his mother. But when he unpacked the box, he found a couple of bricks with a note inside:
– You can go on living your life at your own pleasure. You don’t have a mom anymore!
After this story, he was not himself. His mother did not answer his letters or pick up the phone. She was determined to let her son go free. It was time for him to grow up. He had to grow up. He walked around lost, sad, begging, and decided to find some kind of part-time job. Considering the fact that he was a squirrel, it was hard for him. They’re not used to work!
He dropped out of high school because he had to choose between studying and working. He disappeared from view for a while. After that I met a well-dressed man in the street.
Richard, is that you? – He says to me.
I turn around and cannot figure out who this young man is. As it turned out, it was Mark.
To climb out of the debt hole, he worked long and hard. But by now he had a family and children. He recovered and graduated from high school. He confessed that it was those bricks that made him a man.
