Describe a person who surprised you

I'd like to talk about a classmate called Otabek, who surprised me quite a lot in my last year at secondary school. For most of the time I'd known him, he was one of the quietest people in the class. He sat at the back, hardly ever raised his hand, and spent breaks reading alone, so many of us assumed that he was shy or uninterested in school events.

Then, in the spring, our school organised a talent show. The teacher asked for volunteers, and to everyone's astonishment, Otabek put his name down. On the day, he walked onto the stage with a guitar, and I think the whole hall expected something quite ordinary. But he played and sang an original song that he had written himself, with a powerful, confident voice. When he finished, there was a moment of silence, and then the entire room stood and applauded.

I'd expected him to be nervous or to withdraw at the last moment, so I was taken aback. I felt a mixture of amazement and a bit of guilt, because I had never really taken the trouble to talk to him. Afterwards, I went to congratulate him, and we ended up chatting for an hour. It turned out that he had been writing songs for years, but he'd never shared them out of fear of being laughed at.

This experience taught me never to judge people by their outward behaviour. Everyone has qualities that aren't visible at first. Otabek and I have become good friends since then, and I'm his biggest fan.