Far Away Friend

OK, here is the rest of the story.  It started with the 99Designs contest that I launched for the creation of our KangaRua logo back in February, for our still-yet-to-be completed website for selling collars, leashes & more!

To pick up where I left off, this is about our new friend, the design contest winner.  To back up a little, the contest was quite an interesting process.  You end up working with a number of designers from all over (in this case, the one I went with was from Croatia), working to create a custom design for you.  During this entire process, you leave feedback and the designer, hopefully understands, and makes changes.  And you continue this back and forth process.  There is no face-to-face, no Go ToMeeting, or no phone calls.  One designer stood out above the rest.  I could not believe how well they listened, how well they requested feedback, and the amount of patience they had (hey, I am an accountant trying to put into words, changes I wanted to the design).  I was pretty sure I was talking to a female, because sorry guys, most of the men I have known don’t communicate well at all.

It wasn’t until the entire process was complete and I had selected the winner, that I found out that my design winner was not female.  Not only was my design winner a male, but he was only 19, living in a small town in Croatia, working on his degree in multimedia.  Oh, and did I mention that English is his SECOND language!

Life is quite funny, because I am pretty sure that if we would have bumped into each on the street, we never would have had a conversation with each other.  We are 1/2 a world apart, figuratively and literally.  Vedran likes heavy metal music, has long, puffy hair, wears black and doc martens!  He will act like a child with his friends, having fun, goofing off, and doing things that teenagers will do.  I, on the other hand, am middle-aged (oh, that is painful to put down in words), like country music, have a type-A personality and am an accountant.

During the past 2-1/2 months, Vedran and I have been communicating via email on a regular basis.  I am enjoying getting to know this wonderful and talented young man…learning about the his life in Croatia, his family, his friends, what he likes to do, etc.  He is also a huge fan of Rua (how can I not like him for that), so I send him lots of pictures of Rua and her new California Girl adventures!  I would be so proud to be able to call this fine young man my son!

As I said before, if we would have met on the street, we would have never spoken a word to each other.  There is a singing competition on TV called The Voice.  It starts with blind auditions where a panel of 4 highly talented and successful singers pick people to be on their team strictly based on their singing abilities.

What I have learned from this experience in getting to know Vedran, is life should be more like The Voice.  Don’t judge people on their age, the way they choose to dress, or the company they keep.  You might just miss the opportunity to form a friendship with a wonderful person.

I am blessed to be able to call Vedran my friend.

I love my Life with Rua!