Hello, everyone. We don’t know exactly when or where this story happened, but nevertheless, it’s been shared millions of times because it has something important to offer and everyone should get to hear it. It’s about the fact that we never know who our classmates may become in the future. People change sometimes, whether it’s for the better or worse. Let’s watch this episode and find out.

A guy named Pasha studied in our class. He was a rather ordinary student. He succeeded in some things and wasn’t so great at others, but overall he got average grades. The one thing about him, though, was that he was great at math. It was easy for him, and he loved the subject.

Pasha was from a poor family. He didn’t have a father, and his mother worked two jobs to make ends meet. She worked as a cleaner in our school during the first half of the day, and her second job was cleaning a store in the evenings. At least I often saw her there. Pasha wore old sneakers in the same pants all year round.

His classmates had fancy gadgets, while Pasha could only dream about them. But oddly enough, Pasha wasn’t ashamed of his mother. He often stayed after school to help her. He carried buckets of water and even cleaned and swept the floors. At first, we all tried to make fun of Pasha and even bullied him.

They obviously bothered him. But as we got closer to graduation, Pasha stopped paying attention to the jokes made at his expense. So we stopped doing it, although it might have been because we got a bit older. In any case, he never had many friends. No, we didn’t ignore him.

We talked to him, but it’s not like he was ever part of my group. He kept to himself most of the time, but that’s not all. He had some other problems, too. I think that every school has a teacher who’s all friendly and affectionate with children from wealthy families, while being very harsh on the kids from poor families. Given the fact that Pasha’s mother couldn’t always donate for class needs, Pasha often got the worst of this teacher’s attitude.

In our school, it was the biology teacher, Svetlana. It’s only now, many years later, that I understand how duplicitous she was, although I never had problems with her. That’s probably because my father often fulfilled her whims for repairs in the classroom. But for some reason she disliked Pasha the most. She called on him every day, and anytime he wasn’t ready for the class, she’d humiliated him in front of the whole class and we’d all laugh.

When we were in the 11th grade and there are only two months left before graduation, she finished her typical speech, directed at Pasha with an offensive phrase which I remember to this day. Remember, Pasha, the cleaner son will never be a businessman, just like a businessman’s son will never stoop to the level of a cleaner. Pasha listened, only biting his lips. I would probably never have written the story if it wasn’t for a recent incident, which influenced me greatly. I never saw Pasha after school, and since he didn’t stay in touch with any of us, we knew nothing about him.

He’d occasionally appear on social networks, but he only had three pictures there with other people in the background. By the way, it’s been 20 years since graduation, and someone casually suggested having a reunion, and for the next six months we couldn’t pick a date because, as it often happens, everyone had their own issues work, children, etc. Finally, we found a date that seemed to work out for everyone. I’m not sure why, but we decided to meet at one of the restaurants in our city. Svetlana was also invited because she was our homeroom teacher.

Some half an hour after we got there, she began to ask everyone about their lives and achievements. It was actually interesting to learn that someone was a manager in a large company and was very proud of it. Someone drove a taxi and someone was unemployed. When it was Posh’s turn, she sarcastically asked what he was doing for a living. Svetlana.

I build houses, Pasha answered vaguely. So I see your construction worker, the teacher affirmed. Something like that, Pasha answered with a smile. The fun continued. There’s a lot to reminisce about.

Many haven’t changed at all, and many have changed completely. Towards the end of the night, when people were beginning to leave, one by one, that same Pasha, the son of the former cleaning lady who helped her wash the floors many times, announced that he had paid for everything himself, and the money that each of us had already paid would be refunded. Many people, including myself, tried to talk him out of it, emphasizing how expensive it would be for him. And then something very unexpected happens. It’s my restaurant, he said.

And really, I’d like to treat you all this dinner because you’re my classmates. Most of all, I remember the face of Svetlana. After the reunion, Pasha offered to take her home in his car. His personal driver came to pick her up at a black business class Mercedes. She got into the car with her mouth open in disbelief.

A few days later, when everybody calmed down a bit from what they had seen and began to make some inquiries, it turned out that Pasha had his own construction business, and his mother hadn’t been working for a long time now, but rather lived in a beautiful house that her son had bought. I still can’t get this reunion out of my head. Working as a manager at a large company, I often think that we’re the only ones responsible for our lives. Doesn’t matter whether our parents are rich or poor. All that matters is who we want to be and our willingness to work for it.

But it’s even more important to always remain human after all. We have to admit that even having achieved so much, Pasha wasn’t going around screaming about it every corner, like so many others would have done. He’s a modest person who works hard.