If I would’ve listened to my mind when choosing my friends and if I would’ve divided them into groups of usefulness/ uselessness companions – I dare say, my life would have taken a much worse course.
It all started at the age of 10! I attended the fifth grade of a primary school in Berlin and I was as popular as a student can be, who was forced to wear the clothes of his 7 years older brother. Not to mention my hair style which lag a decade behind (Thanks mom!).
Picture a broad-nosed grouch with a bowl haircut, leather pants and an aluminum briefcase, who couldn’t think of anything more exciting than spending his free time inside a library. Yes, you’re right: I was exactly that nerd, which you didn’t pick to play in your dodgeball team, except you needed cannon fodder.
Well- and then my friend Ender came. Enrolled in school very late, he had to repeat several classes and the teachers referred to him as the “Deutsch-Türke” (the german turk) who was the school’s biggest bully. When he stepped through the door of my classroom for the first time, I thought a father came to pick up his child. But then, the coolness in person was placed right next to me at the desk. The teacher probably thought the nerd (me) could have a positive influence on the troubled student (Ender). But the exact opposite happened.
Ender has changed my life – mainly because he liked me – probably because I did his homework. Believe me, I didn’t do it because he forced me to or because he stole my sneakers. No. Quite the opposite happened, because he gave me my first Adidas sneakers. He got them from his father’s store. I guess he didn’t want me to wear my beetle crushers any longer. And since the popular student Ender became my friend, all of a sudden, all the other students (that didn’t even know I existed) started to notice me. Ender even taught me some very valuable things. Things an elementary school student “definitely” needs to know: for example, he showed me how to smoke a cigar (bad idea to do it right next to the gymnasium while the PE teacher comes by).
I owe Ender a lot and I’m very happy to still be friends with him. Of course, I visit him in prison every Sunday (just kidding) ….
Well- now you know why I’ve used Ender’s name in “Abgeschnitten” (“Cut off”) and why I like unusual stories so much.
To get an even better picture of me, I would like to outline some of the most important stations of my working life.
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