There are people that you meet, and then there are those that you’ll never forget… Ricardo is one of those people… I have been more than lucky in my lifetime to have met  this guy who literally changed my life.

Coming to a different country and learning a new language is pretty difficult, but I remember a lot of people who encouraged me to be better, to make it! When I graduated from high school I knew that college was not going to be easy, I needed a car and did not have the money to afford one, a few friends came to my rescue! And I will be eternally grateful.

My life depended on friends picking me up from school or dropping me off on time for class. Whenever your life is surrendered to others, it’s very difficult not to feel like you are an inconvenience. Ricardo was kind enough to give me a couch to sleep on, he’d wake up early just to drop me off at school, go back home and sleep before having to do his shift as a EMT; the guy literally saved lives for a living, and one day he saved mine!

It had been a couple of days of just snaking on a couple of things, not really eating and sleeping very poorly, Ricardo was dropping me off at school and, like always, we joked all the way there, but he noticed that I was a little pale and not at all myself that day. I got out of the car and he said: “hey! come back over here!” I was ashamed and I knew right away! He asked in a pretty upset tone: “have you been eating?” So I said “yes, of course!” That was not convincing enough for him, he knew me all too well. He knew that I was very ashamed for all the sacrifices everyone was doing for me… so he reached into his wallet and handed me a 20 dollar bill.

I will forever remember him as an amazing friend, and I know that even with all the money in the world I would never be able to repay the kindness and selflessness he showed me!

Thank you Ritchie Diaz!

My adopted Padrino!

Cristian Hernández