This man that the narrator met by the lake taught them many lessons about life through their conversations. He shared stories of his past successes and disappointments. The man encouraged the narrator to follow their dreams but also taught them to be humble, selfless, and make wise choices. While the man's life did not turn out as he expected, he remained positive and hoped to face what had challenged him in the past. The narrator was grateful for the wisdom the man imparted before they both continued on their separate journeys.

1. Story by the Lake
There is this man whom I once knew. He used to be a companion and a friend though we barely
knew each other and is occasionally we meet on a place which he used to come first and which I have
known first. He was a man with firm stature and looks far differently from the average men in their
adulthood in our town. He is more sophisticatedly looking, has much more neatness in appearance and
talks and communicates well with grace. He must have been from a higher form of society where laws
are obeyed and actions were abide by norms, where status is more valuable than its value, where
people lost their souls and acts like machines, where perfection can almost be found, where heaven is a
mere concept of pleasure and that hell never existed even after death…
He is pretty much older than me. I always find him sitting near the lake, looking distantly
through the trees, thinking deeply; and then I asked him “May I know your name, sir?” and then he
asked me back “Does it matter, child? Soon you will learn that labels bring confusion and divisions
among your people so it’s better to be unknown yet valued than being known yet neglected” He asked
me, “How are you my child?” I answered him yet when I asked him the same question he never
answered me instead he started talking about things as if he needs someone to hear his thoughts that
nobody had never paid attention to. He is telling me stories of how he lived his life so far, his journeys,
even his plans for himself and for his future family and plans of remedy from his misfortunes… He talks
about how well he did great in his career, how he helped people changed their lives, how good he has
been to every person who is close to him, how well he has been good to his life yet life has never gave
back the goodness he had done…
He might not admit it but I can clearly see and feel how he hated how his life has turned now
and that he has lost hope and faith for a better future. Basing on how he described fate and how it
works and affects us, no matter how hard he tries to sound happy and optimistic, there is still a tone of
disappointment that can be heard from his voice.
He taught me to be logical and rational enough to differentiate and distinguish things that will
bring good and will not cause harm neither to me nor to mankind. He taught me to be selfless for a
purpose and be myself in everything I do and must convince my expectators that giving my best was all
what I did.
He had discussed things, various things particularly about establishing balance between my
reasonable mind and vulnerable heart. He cleared the dispute between white lies and its consequences
and honesty with its inconsideration; about family and kinship and its responsibilities for being
congenitally bound for it; with friendship line is distorted between the meaning of goodness and its
counterpart, between loyalty and infidelity, between truths and lies. He told me what friendships to
keep and those to leave behind because “you may not run out of them yet it will be uneasy for you
finding the true ones”.

2. He does know well a lot of things about life as if he had been through a lot of things; “Be
grateful and never regret your mistakes, turn it into a lesson that everybody can learn from; treasure
what you have and ask not for more but for what could be just enough”; “Practice to be humble in your
every achievement and try to attain them without oppressing nor using anyone, a success can never be
as fruitful and as much sweeter as what he or she thinks it is because a genuine heart and a pure mind
can only be rewarded with a success much fruitful as it will be and as much sweeter as what he or she
can ever imagine”; “ What’s your worth can never be measured nor anybody else’s. Nobody can justify
how much your value is, your dignity, conscience and godly living is worth more than any amount of
wealth this world could offer”; “When everything has become suspicious and improbable and you are
faced to a dilemma created by the people around you and when it is a matter of choosing between
“yes” or “no”, say ‘NO’ to their “yes” and ‘YES’ to their “no” as what everybody tells you is absolutely
the reciprocity of the truth, so say ‘NO’. And as what everybody tells you as “yes” is the ingenuity of lies
used as façades to let the facts be hidden from your keen understanding so as to deceive you and use
your idiocy of the matter, so say ‘No’ to their “Yes”. And when everybody tells you to “hold back” and
say “No”, be courageous enough to take risks, follow your heart and definitely say, “Yes”.
He must have been too generous and wise enough to share these things and fair enough to me
to mask the hatred he felt and presents life positively as though it did the same to him.
With his words of wisdom, one may infer how he must have been in full control of his life but
then, life never always work the way you might have expected nor the possibilities that an occurrence
will take place in spite of the facts you have that such phenomena must likely to happen. Nobody can
ever be in full control of his own life partly because you have no control of other people’s lives nor their
thinking and what will be their actions which could greatly affect you, either in a good way or the other
way around. With this man’s case, he must have been a victim of other people’s vicious acts which
turned his life in jeopardy and brought him misfortunes. But then lucky of him for in spite of those he
have never gone mad and positively accepted and learned his lessons (that is what I thought) for if he
does not he must not have been telling me his realizations by now. Encouraging me to go on with my life
and live my dreams. There are a lot of things to learn in life and I’m grateful he let me have a glimpse of
it. How I wish I could still spend more time with him and listen more as he shares his wisdom with me.
But then he must also have to go on with his life, start a new one and go back to the place where he left
things failing and trembling down which needs his own interventions.
He left on the same day I thought of leaving to begin realizing my dreams and in which he
served a great help. I am happy for him for he finally grabbed himself together and manage to collect
the courage he needed in which from the beginning brought him hesitations of whether to turn back
and face it or just runaway, an easier option which strongly took over him as a result of cowardice and
lack of self-confidence. I am hoping to see him again and ask him the very same question he never
answered me, his name because he will stay mysterious to me until the days I’m taking my own journey
in life. Maybe he have thought that through his strangeness will perhaps, somehow help me remember
the great things he revealed to me.