The story of Michael Kauman and his perspective was not what he knew about his friend Hector, but what he assumed. It all started when they were young boys living in the same housing tenement. They became friends instantly, played all the time with rubber bands and toy guns. Michael's family then moved to another part of town, and he did not see Hector again until they both went to Junior high school together. Once they got to junior high there was an exam where admission based on competition. Michael was placed in the the classes with the smarter or intellectually gifted children, where Hector was placed in the "slower" or next brightest classes. Michael and Hector did not hang out much anymore, they would only see each other at lunch and play games like punchball. They also went to seperate high schools since Michael got into Bronx science, and Hector went downtown to commerce. After college, Kaufman would ignore Hector because he believed their lives went in two separate directions, so why would there be a need for them to have conversation anymore. This shows how society can be so judgmental and stubborn when it comes to socializing. People feel the need to only form connections with people that are similar to them. Before the discovery of Hector’s success, Kaufman says, “I remember quite distinctly how I would sit on the train and think about how strange and unfair fate had been with regard to the two of us who had once been playmates. Just because I had become an intellectually gifted adult or whatever and he had become a longshoreman or whatever, was that any reason for us to have been left with nothing to say to each other?” Then after the discovery of Hector’s success Kaufman says, “So why did I think he was a longshoreman? Was it just the cap? Could it be that his being Puerto Rican had something to do with it?” Kaufman feels like their lost of