The Blue Jelly Bean

The Blue Jelly Bean

Once upon a time there was a jelly bean. This jelly bean was very lonely because he was the last blue jelly bean in the packet. All the red jelly beans and the yellow jelly beans would make fun of him and be mean to the blue jelly bean. The Blue jelly bean was not very happy and was very sad. One day a man had bought the bag of jelly beans at the movie theater, he had spilt them on the ground accidently and the blue jelly bean was one of those beans. The man played by the 5 second rule, so he quickly tried to gather up all the jelly beans he could see in the dark movie theater. He quickly saw all the red and yellow jelly beans because they caught his eyes with their bright colors they had. He swept them up and threw them in his mouth. However, the blue jelly bean was unnoticed because he blended in with the darkness of the movie theater. As he watched in horror as his fellow bag mates were consumed by the giant beast, he tried to think of what he could do... he was frantic for that he might be discovered. But to his luck this man was particularly clumsy and a splash of cola came crashing down and swooshed the jelly bean across the floor onto the row in front of where he was previous. The jelly bean was relieved because he had dodged his first problem. But he soon realized he had another problem at hand… the vacuum cleaner… he knew that after the movie, that foul contraption would be after him relentlessly and he would have no escape. He tried to start to wobble just to make it somewhere else… but right then, he was stepped upon and smushed onto the shoe of an infant. The bean was in excruciating pain, but he thought this was a sign from the chief upstairs for right then the child started to cry as an alien got decapitated by a Indian chieftain on the movie in the theater. And because the toddler was crying the adult figure with him was then forced to leave the area with the little snot. On the way out of the theater the bean managed to wiggle free from the light-up Scooby Doo sneakers that belonged to the kid… right into the crevice of a drain hole. The bean bounced and plopped its way through the tunnel. The never ending tunnel frightened the bean because he didn’t know what was going on, for the light reflecting off the water spray in the dark tunnel almost made it seem like he was Han Solo going through light speed. But he was finally able to gain his senses when he saw a very bright light at the end of the tunnel. He braced himself thinking it was going to be a train…. *Swoosh* the bean shoots out of the bright light into…water? The tunnel was a direct sewer lines that lead into the nearby lake. As the bean is flying threw the air he is beginning to think all hope is lost and that he is going to die. He hits the water, and because of his newly formed flattened surface he was able to skip across the water like a rock. He reaches somewhere near the middle of the lake and he starts to settle down with his skipping. He finally comes to a stop and he finds that he can’t sink because of his “wonderful” new shape. He sits there for days and the sun starts to bake him. His jelly insides start to turn hard and he starts to lose his transparency, he is in agony and he feels that the end is near. Finally a boat comes by sending a wave that topples him over causing him to sink. He slowly makes his journey down the blue abyss like a fishing lure waiting for a salmon to come get some. On his way down he notices that everything is blue down there and that he kind of blends in with everything. He finally hits bottom and he notices that there is other forgotten and random junk down there also. He notices a rusty old bike, and a old football trophy… and they all look blue… but not pure blue. He thinks to himself “everything down here… is like me”. The blue jelly bean rejoices in the new found home and learns to love the new life he has come about. For he has found a place where he belongs. Moral of the story: just because you haven’t found your place yet, doesn’t mean you wont.

Life For Granted

Today, upon a bus

I saw a girl with golden hair,

And wished I was as fair

When suddenly she rose to leave,

I saw her hobble down the aisle,

She had one leg and wore a crutch

But as she passed, she passed a smile

Oh, God, forgive me when I whine.

I have two legs, the world is mine.

I stopped to buy some candy,

The lad who sold it had such charm,

I talked with him, he seemed so glad,

If I were late, it'd do no harm.

And as I left, he said to me,

"I thank you, you've been so kind,

It's nice to talk with folks like you,

You see," he said, "I'm blind."

Oh, God, forgive me when I whine.

I have two eyes, the world is mine

Later while walking down the street,

I saw a child with eyes of blue,

He stood and watched the others play,

He did not know what to do

I stopped a moment and then I said,

"Why don't you join the others, dear?"

He looked ahead without a word

And then I knew he couldn't hear

With feet to take me where I'd go,

With eyes to see the sunset's glow,

With ears to hear what I'd know

Oh, God, forgive me when I whine.

I've been blessed indeed, the world is mine.

A Simple Wish

“--- and then the cars started piling up on top of me!! I didn’t know what to do, there was blood everywhere!!! I thought for sure I was a goner, but then I reached for my—“

Vince Holts smacked his alarm to turn it off as he woke up one day, it was a normal day. He woke up in his bed that was in his small, closet like room. Vince got out of bed and did his normal routine that he does in the morning: “I hate my life… I hate my life” is what Vince mumbled to himself every morning as he walked to the bathroom from his bedroom.

When he got into the bathroom he fumbled around half-awake looking for a clean towel. He felt around like a blind man until he came across a soft object that he believed to be a folded towel. He grabbed the towel and set it on the edge of the old-cracked counter-top next to the sink. He then felt his way into the shower and turned it on. He immediately let out a yelp and was wide awake due to the first five seconds of cold water hitting his body. He then dried off and got dressed in his tattered blue-jeans and wrinkled blue and green t-shirt.

He then headed downstairs to get some morning yum yums.

As he poured his Rice Crispies® cereal into a clear glass bowl for his breakfast, he read the note his mom had left him before she left for work.

“Don’t forget to feed the dog, and pick up the mail, and clean the house when you get back from school, if you don’t do your chores this week you’re going back to your father’s house”

“Awww crap…. I hate my life,” he moaned to himself as he scanned over the letter. He continued to eat his cereal, and then he heard a loud DING sound. Alarmed by this sound he bolted out of the house and took off towards the school. He made it there in about 45 steps, because he lived right next to the school, so he was only a couple minutes late.

In his first period he was shuffling around in his backpack for his homework. He realized he had forgotten the homework on his desk at home. Flustered by this he tried to think of something he could do. “So Not Good… So Not Good….” He thought as he looked around for an alternate option, he glanced at the homework sitting on the girl named Sara’s desk sitting next to him “hmmhmm” thought Vince as he was scheming, he started to reach over and grab the paper, but the girl sat back down and Vince averted his reach into a stretch like maneuver to try and avoid suspension.

“Ya… not happening loser” the girl sneered as she rolled her eyes back at him and grabbed her paper.

“Dang… okay plan B,” mumbled Vince as he was trying to think of a plan B. “Mrs. Osterns, can I go to the bathroom? I got to take a growler”

“…….Yes Mr. Holts, you may go to the bathroom” Mrs. Osterns said, as if talking to a retarded child.

“Yes!” Vince said under his breathe, with a subtle fist pump. As he was leaving the class room he walked by the make-ups homework bin and grabbed a sheet of the assignment that was due that day.

When he got into the bathroom he hurled his body into one of the stall doors and it was immediately returned with a kid yelling “OCCUPIED!” Embarrassed by that little encounter he cautiously moved to the next stall and tapped on it. The door opened, but to his misfortune, someone else had already demolished it and forgot to clean up the battle field after the war. He maneuvered to the next stall and he suddenly felt the sudden urge to feel like a tough guy, he stepped up to the door to see if it was open… it was. He moved up as close as he could and kicked it open like he was a cop on a drug smuggling bust, unfortunately he got a reaction that the cops do not, when he kicked the door open, the door hit the wall and bounced off and came and smacked Vince in the face.

Finally after all his troubles in the bathroom, he slid out the homework assignment from his pocket and started working on it.

Right when he finally finished it, he put his pencil back in his pocket where it stabbed his leg and he made a yelp, the guy in the stall next to him comically remarked “ya dude, me to”. Disgusted by the image he had formed in his head of what the kid was talking about, he walked out of the bathroom and back to his class.

When he got back to his class and laid back down in his chair, the teacher asked for the homework to be turned in and he passed his forward, not realizing that he had left the homework in the bathroom and he was passing forward a disposable hand towel instead. Feeling like an idiot he sank back into his seat and just watched as his little towel snaked its way to the front.

The teacher got his towel and asked who it belonged to, nobody spoke up. Every kid knew, but nobody said anything. The teacher then lost interest in asking who had passed it forward and went on with her lesson plan.

After six periods of about the same thing as first period, Vince was finally able to go home… to nothing much better. He walked into his house and sat on the couch to watch some T.V., his dog followed him and looked at him pleadingly as if it wanted something.

Vince fell asleep on the couch and began to dose off to sleep.

While he was asleep he had the most wonderful dream he had ever had, he was surrounded by females and by wealth and toys and everything he could possible ever want. He had the most amazing dream he had ever had. It was as if everything went right.

When he woke, his mom was standing in front of him hitting him with a rolled up newspaper. He could see the obituaries section in the paper and got nervous about some kind of fore-shadowing that might take place.

“I thought I left you a note to do those chores!” screamed his mom.

“You…you did” Vince squeaked out trying to make a little smile.

“Ya… that’s what I thought, you remember what the end of the note said?” raged Vince’s mom.

Vince thought for a moment trying to recall what it had said. *…Don’t forget to feed the dog, and pick up the mail, and clean the house when you get back from school and…… if you don’t do your chores this week your going back to your fathers house*

“… uhhh sorry mom, I forgot what it said. Could you remind me?”

“Ya I’ll remind you alright, I said that your were going back to your dads if you didn’t do your chores”

“MOM! You can’t do that to me, dad lives all the way in Florida, I don’t want to move down there, I have allergies” exclaimed Vince.

“You have allergies to everything Vince!”

“I know mom… my life kind of sucks, if you haven’t noticed” breathed out Vince

She then took in a deep breathe and closed her eyes as if trying to press the undo button on what she had said.

“…. I’m sorry Vince, I know its tough now, but everything will be fine soon. Just try and keep your head up” apologized Vince’s mom

Vince headed up to his room to go study after him and his mom had that little pow wow, he flopped on his bed and began pulling books out of his back pack.

As he was pulling out his stuff he began thinking about how things went that day…

He turned to his dog, which was lying on the inside of his door and began talking to him…

“Man I hate my life… why does everyone else get things so easy, and then there is me, this worthless piece of life who can’t seem to do anything right. I must have been a mass murderer in my past life, because my karma is out to get me… I just wish something would go right for once” prayed Vince

Rover then twitched his nose and moved his paw in a way to scratch it

He finally pulled out his last book and opened it up… then he slammed it closed

“God… I don’t want to do this crap” Vince mumbled to himself

He looked around for something else to do, he looked at his computer and started to go over to it, to find that it was overly messy. Vince did not have any intentions in cleaning that up, so he looked for something else to do, he turned to his bed again and saw his radio sitting on the night stand, near the head of his bed.

“It wouldn’t hurt to listen to the media”

Vince turned on the radio and the first station it went to—

“—just can’t seem to learn, and the main cause of it is because kids aren’t doing their homework. Homework in itself is studying. If every child would do their homework this next generation coming up would be a bigger brighter set of people that—“

“Okay maybe it would hurt”

Vince started to pace around his room again looking for something to do when his mom called him from downstairs.

“Vince!!! Get down here”

Vince twisted towards his door and his legs got twisted on each other and he fell over.

“Yep…could have predicted that one”

Vince picked himself up and headed downstairs to see his mom on the phone talking about some kind of food. When his mom hung up the phone she threw him the car keys and he stumbled with them as they were coming at him.

“Go get the pizza, it will be ready in 5 minutes, it’s under your name” his mom told him as she handed him 20 dollars.

“Uhhggg… okay I’ll go get my jacket” moaned Vince

Vince got his jacket and headed out to the car, he fired the car up and started back up, when he suddenly realized that he had put the car in neutral and was drifting out into the middle of the road. He slammed on the breaks right before another car nailed the back end of him.

“Another day in my life…” Breathed out Vince

He changed gears to reverse and backed out and started heading down the road.

“Okay now lets listen to something on the radio” he said to himself as he started pressing buttons in the car.

“—just can’t seem to learn, and the main cause of it is because kids aren’t doing their homework. Homework in itself is studying. If every child would do their homework this next generation coming up would be a bigger brighter set of people that—“

“Really? The same thing? I swear I just heard that exact same thing earlier” he said to himself as he pressed one of the pre-set buttons.

Button 1…Same

Button 2…Same

Button 3… Same

Button 4… Same

“Screw this, I’ll just drive in silence” he said as he rammed his finger into the off button.

He got to the pizza place and as he was waiting in line he saw a little kid jumping up and down waving a piece of paper.

“Mommy, Mommy; look at this, I did so well on my homework that I got a gold star on it today!” exclaimed the little kid.

“Well that is wonderful honey… what do you want on your pizza?”

The child was so enveloped in his work he didn’t even hear his mom.

As Vince was watching the child he became inspired to do his homework…

“I want a gold star too…” thought Vince,

He got to the front of the line and gave his name to the cashier.

“Cute kid, huh? I wish I would have done my homework when I was a little snot, wouldn’t be working here then” remarked the cahier about the child that was just in the pizza place.

Vince paid for the pizza and took it out to the car. He got into his vehicle and started on his way home.

“Mom! I’m home, I got the pizza, and I’m just going to set it on the kitchen table”

….. No response

Vince walks upstairs to see his mom laying face down on her bed, he moves closer to her to make sure she wasn’t dead. When he got close enough, he saw that she has fallen asleep. The creases on her face as she was sleeping could easily be recognized as someone who had, had a very long day and was not looking forward to tomorrow.

Vince walked to his room and sat down on his bed.

He looked around for something to do. He looked at his computer… still a mess, he looked around and then he saw his backpack laying on the ground all crinkled like a raisin. He crawled over to it and pulled it up to him.

“Okay… I guess I better actually do my homework today, Media says I should, Pizza guy wishes he would have, and by golly I’m not going to get one-upped by some little kid” stated Vince to himself as he pulled out his homework from the depths of his raisin like backpack.

He got his homework and stumbled his way back to his bed, he pulled out a pen from his left pocket, and he actually got to work on his homework. In his mind as he was doing his homework the only thing he could think of was the theme music from “Rocky”, as if doing his homework was a huge deal.

“----Good morning and say hello to another miserable day, cloudy skies and a bad chance of hail and rain. Most likely you’re going to need to---“

Vince hit his alarm and got out of bed.

“I hate my life…. I hate my life…” mumbled Vince as he headed off to the bathroom to do his normal morning routine.

He got into the bathroom and looked in the mirror. Crease lines from sleeping made him look like Two-Face from the original Bat Man© Movies. He got in the shower and he yelped as the first 5 seconds of cold water hit him. He got out and dried off. He then wrapped his towel around his waste in a cylinder like fashion and rolled the top like he would a newspaper. He put his left hand on the mirror and moved his hand in a clock wise circular motion to remove the mist. He then proceeded to comb his hair and then get dressed. Right leg first, then left leg through his jeans. He put on a red shirt with a big Nike© symbol in the middle of it.

He then headed down stairs to eat breakfast. He opened the cupboard to look for some munchies. He pulled out a box of Pop tarts and started to throw those down like he was on death row and was eating his last meal.

*Ding, Ding, Ding, Di--*

“Yep… time to go to school”

He started to head out the door when suddenly he had a sudden remembrance *Grab your homework* rolled through his head like someone was talking to him.

He ran upstairs and grabbed it and then took off to school.

He got to class and was surprisingly… the first one there. He sat down in his normal seat and pulled out his homework.

“Alright” he remarked to himself

He began going over the homework to make sure everything was right and he hadn’t made any stupid mistakes. When he looked up from his paper, he realized that kids had started to fill into the classroom. He looked around to see who had already came in, he saw the girl next to him, Sara. She seemed to be in a very bad mood and was laying on her desk all spread out as if getting ready to start hitting her head on the desk.

Vince leaned over as if to talk to her

“Uhhh… what seems to be the problem? Your not dying or anything are you?”

“No…. I forgot my homework, this is going to kill my grade in here” Sara wined

“well I have mine, and class hasn’t started yet, you can go ahead and copy it if you want”

she looked at Vince as if he was some sort of divine being.

“Really? You would do that for me?”

“Sure why not? You said it would kill your grade didn’t you”

“Well ya… but we aren’t exactly friends” Sarah explained

“Well what better way to start… right?”

She smiled at him and he handed her his paper

“Right” She laughed

*Ding

The bell rang and class then started.

She handed him back his paper and she smiled at him.

The rest of the day went by great, it seemed like Sarah was in his pocket the whole day, he really liked it.

At the end of the day as he was heading home Sarah came running up to him

“Hey Vince!”

“Huh?” he blurted out as he turned around to face her

“What are you doing today? Want to go see a movie or something?”

“Uhhh….” Vince didn’t know what to say, this was a first for him

“Common please… it will be fun”

“Well I guess so. When do you want to go?”

“lets go right now!”

Vince got this warm feeling inside, he felt really good.

“Okay lets go” He yelled as he pointed his finger at the door

She got really excited and grabbed his hand and started to run off with him.

To Vince, it seemed like life was starting to feel better.

The End

Socks

The single most life altering event in my life would probably have to be the day I won freshman Javelin districts. It was the first time I had actually ever achieved anything of importance outside of my own little fantasy world. It was also the first time that I figured out that when I actually set my foot down, and fully believe that I can go out and dominate something.

To start the story I will summarize how the whole track season went prior to freshman districts.

When I first came out for track my freshman year I was set on being a long jump kid. It was what I had been really good at in middle school and it was the event my older brother had done. However, the real reason why I had done track in the past was because it was a co-ed sport, and I was ecstatic to be doing sports with females in high school. Unfortunately, to my disappointment I did not take into consideration that I was going to school at Mead High School, and they take track incredibly serious. I ultimately found out that Mead boys and girls did not practice together, and that it was actually frowned upon to interact with each other during the hours of track. In figuring this out I wanted to bail on the whole program and just quit track, because my main reason for coming out for track had been cut out from my high school career.

I went and talked to the head track coach after the third practice in his office, and told him that I wasn’t really feeling too strong about track. That it just didn’t seem like a place for me. Mr. Mires being the guy he is didn’t want me to just quit right after starting. He told me to wait until the first meet and then make a decision. Reluctant to be on the bad side of Mr. Mires, I forced a smile and agreed with him on that being the best decision. The next day I went out and looked for what appeared to be the easiest event possible in track. I first looked at high jump, but decided I had to work on a lot of leg strength for that. Then I looked at shot putt, and decided that I would have to focus a lot on upper body strength. I was really in a pickle until I came across javelin. Javelin looked incredibly easy because all you had to do was chuck a stick out into the grass. Later did I find out that it was actually one of the hardest events in track because of all the technique work that is required.

I made my trek to the Javelin field on the beginning of the fourth practice and started throwing it out into the field. It didn’t go far at first, but the coach was very encouraging and said that I had the perfect body for it. I thought he was just feeding me a line of crap. So I once again forced a smile and tried to show some enthusiasm. It was really hard for me to actually pay attention to what the coach would be saying to us while at practice because I had the mentality that I just wanted to get out of there and quit track.

When the first track meet came around, I was super excited. “I can finally quit, I can finally quit, I can finally quit” was all that was going through my head and I was just counting down until I was up to throw. We arrived at the field with our javelins, and we did our warm ups and what not, to be ready for our competition. When my name was finally called, I took off my sweats and picked up my javelin. As I was walking to the runway, my coach came up to me and gave me his version of words of wisdom: “Yo Nic, let’s lift up that skirt of yours and let that javelin fly”. I was a little baffled with my coach’s comment, but by his grin while saying it, I knew he was saying it as constructive criticism, and to get me fired up a little bit. And fired up I got. I took that javelin and I wailed it out into the field. In reality it wasn’t very far, but it was a good 20 feet farther than I had been throwing in practice, and it was a good feeling to do that. After that meet I fell in love with javelin and the exhilaration of the final moments of the throw.

That was all at the very beginning of the season. The life changing event happened at the very end of the season that same year, at Javelin districts.

I woke up that morning, with extreme bravado and zeal for the track meet that was waiting for me that day. I got up and took my shower and got dressed just like every other day. However unlike any other day, this day I had only two clean socks. A black one and a white one. It threw me off guard and I was pretty sure that it was an evil omen about the future events of the day. I tried not to think much about it and slipped them on, left foot black sock, right foot white sock. I then made my trek to school where the bus was then going to transport me to the arena in which I was going to compete.

On arriving at the track, my coach came up to a fellow javelin thrower, who I was warming up with, and myself and he questioned us on how we felt about today, and how we thought we were going to do. My friend mindlessly just rebutted with “I think I’ll do good”. I was about to do the same and then something came over me, like a firm hand shake; but to my soul, and I replied to him with “I’m going to win this”. He proceeded to nod without saying a word and walked off as I took off in the other direction and continued to warm up.

After meditating for about an hour in the grass by myself, trying to find my inner animal’s strength, my name was finally called to throw. I grabbed my javelin and walked over to the runway. My coach cut me off before I stepped up to the runway, and gave me his words of wisdom: “personally I don’t think you can do it, I think you where feeding me a line of crap”. Once again it caught me off guard, but his grin while talking told me that he had just issued me a challenge. I stepped up there with blood flowing in all the veins of my body. I was about to explode with power and just throw it as hard as I could. I was ready to dominate this event, but something happened. That same feeling came over me, that feeling of a firm hand shake on my soul, but it was amplified this time. When I took a breath it came in more crisp, my surroundings became nulled and all I could see was the runway, and the field. My surrounds had disappeared and I was in my own universe with one mission, and nothing else at the moment mattered. I pumped the javelin in the air, took one breath and started to lean into my run. I hear in my mind “it’s go time”, and I started my run. I built up speed step by step all the way until my plant. I hit the ground hard and with more power than I had ever harnessed before. Then time froze. My body moved in every right way and in the last second I released the javelin into the air without even thinking. I crumple down to the ground, and rebuild myself back up in time to see the javelin hit its peak in altitude, and come down like a lighting bolt from Zeus himself. It nails itself into the ground and I stand watching as the officials go out and mark it. 123 feet 7 inches! Ten feet farther than I had thrown any other time my whole season. I was bursting with excitement, but not satisfaction. I knew I could still do better.

My second throw comes around and I muster up myself for another solid throw. This time however I did not feel my Zen. I felt as if my sword had been put back into its sheath and I was venerable. I had no time to waste though. I had my self valor that I had built up on my own and had to just go with that. I ran down the runway and ended up tripping over the foul line. To my disappointment they did not count the throw, and in my rage of the distasteful throw, I take off for a run to get my head clear again and find my inner self for the last throw.

My name is called again for the third and last time. I grab my javelin and start walking to the runway. My coach and I make eye contact as I am walking and all he does is nod. I get up to the runway and grip the javelin. I take a deep breath. I am about to start running when I pause, because of this overwhelming feeling in my chest. It feels like my lungs and heart just had icy-hot rubbed on them and I have to take a second to bring this feeling down. As it comes down I feel more at peace with myself. Like I have just been blessed by a high priest and have a new power within me. I take a step and I can feel my foot make contact with the ground. In an explosion after that first step, I take off at full throttle with the only thought in my head of “it’s go time”. I make my final approach to the end of the strip and I plant my foot. Everything around me comes to an instantaneous halt, and I release the javelin. I fall to the ground, and pick myself up to see the javelin gaining altitude. I gaze at the javelin for the limited amount of time it is in the air and realize, I have just thrown the winning throw. I wait with patience as the officials go out and mark it. 127 feet 10 inches! I walk off the runway, trying to be humble about the situation, but the excitement coming from my teammates is overwhelming. I had just thrown the throw that won freshman districts.

My coach came up to me after my teammates were done bombarding me with excitement, and he congratulated me. He smacked me on the back and told me “Atta kid, way to not be a total failure!” and he grinned and gave me a hug. As he pulled away from our embrace he looked down and noticed my socks and remarked “okay…what is up with those”. I had totally forgotten about the sock situation that had troubled me earlier that morning, but this time I looked at them differently. The mismatching and tabooness of them made me think of them as being a good luck charm. I looked at him and said “It’s my good luck coach, don’t question it” and he just smiled and walked away.

For the last 3 years I have worn a black sock on my left foot and a white sock on my right foot, everyday. I have missed 4 days of not wearing them in the last 3 years and that was only for a wedding, a funeral and two school dances. Staying out for track altered my life. Giving me more self confidence in anything I do. Coming in first place and beating everybody in a city wide event, gives you self confidence that helps you in many aspects of life. Whenever somebody questions me about my socks, I always bring this story up. It gives me even more confidence in life, to share my story. Being the single most life altering moment in my life, it was also the single happiest moment in my life. It’s something that I’m not afraid to share with people by looking like a goon with mismatching socks.

Getting Lost In L.A.

Life altering experience? My first thought would probably have to be of the time my brother and I got lost in Los Angeles, California. An exciting, yet incredibly scary trip which taught me a lot of lessons in life that I will not soon forget. I like to think I'm stronger after this trip because it was the point in my life where my eyes were opened up to the reality of life and all of its hardship. It almost made me feel like I was a different person because of all I witnessed while trying to find my way back to my family with my older brother.

One of the skills I learned on my travels through the city was the ability to talk to total strangers for needed information. At first, we were reluctant to go and ask people for help, but we figured that we probably should because we had no idea where anything was in LA. My brother was the one who took the lead a majority of the time, but when he told me that we had to split up to ask more people, I just about pooped my pants being such an incredibly timid and shy kid, I stepped up and gladly accepted the torch. He then took off in the other direction, so I had no real choice but to muster up the courage and meet new people. The result of my doing so, however, was that I became a stronger and more sociable person. I had to go and talk to total strangers in the midst of a chaotic situation, causing me to not care about what others thought, because I had a mission to accomplish. This event deeply affected my presence in the social arena. I am now able to confront people with confidence because I know I have had to in the past in a much more pressured situation

After finally gathering information from the natives as to where exactly we were, we tried to think of where the rest of my family would be. We started walking down the street with a map of downtown that my brother had obtained from some lady with his puppy dog eyes. After walking a little ways, we came to a stuttering stop. My brother questioned me on where I thought they would be and I came to a conclusion that they, at least the females of the family, would probably be in one of the mall areas, shopping. My brother looked at the map for the closest mall to us, and we then devised the quickest route to it. To no surprise, going with the luck we had been having that day, it was through an alleyway which looked as if it was four blocks long. Such things are not really my cup of tea, but my brother persisted and I had to follow his lead. As we were walking through the alley, I looked around and saw all the stuff around me. It was like traveling through a pyramid of depression. At first, it all started off with just trash and what-not on the ground, but with every couple of steps into the alley the mood elevated into a more despairing and grave one. We walked past drug needles, starving homeless people feeding off the cheese on a cardboard box, all the way to the top of the pyramid where we found a fellow with a broken glass bottle, bleeding and talking to a police officer about how he was fighting demons or some other nonsense. This experience gave me a different outlook on life. It was like it said to me, “Hey Nic, maybe you should take life a little more seriously, you have a lot going for you, but you can easily screw it up and end up living in a place like this”.

After making it through the alley and crossing a couple streets, we came to the mall we had been searching for. We went inside and began running around looking in every store like we were a bunch of mercenary soldiers searching for a hostage. We ran by Banana Republic and took a quick break at the Baskin Robins next to it. My brother, being the charmer he is, made an attempt to flirt with the girl working there in hopes of getting free ice cream. Trying to pick up on his lead I finessed my way into the conversation and came out ahead with an ice cream cone. Also, in gaining favor with the girl, we asked her to call out on the loud speaker of the mall for the Moore family.

Within a couple minutes we received a conformation that they were in the mall and we started to trek in their direction. We were about half way to the entrance of Bed, Bath and Beyond, where they where supposedly waiting for us, when my brother again came to an abrupt stop. He leans over to me and points into the distance at what I thought was a guy slapping another guy on the butt. My brother turns to me and says, “Did you see that? That dude just got pick pocketed”. It did not register at first what my brother had just told me, but right about the time it finally clicked my brother had run off to confront both the victim and the thief. With incredible dexterity, my brother reached into the thief’s pocket, slipped out the man’s wallet, and returned it to its owner. Watching my brother achieve this without even thinking twice gave me goose bumps. Just the sheer selflessness he showed in helping the total stranger made me want to do the same. It made me want to commit acts of good will like his, because if just watching it made me feel so good, I could only imagine what doing it myself would feel like.

After the man promptly thanked my brother, we made our way to our family at Bed, Bath and Beyond. My brother walking humbly as if nothing had happened and myself freaking out about how awesome it was, we finally returned ourselves to our family posse. We asked if they had been afraid of not being able to find us, but, ending our journey with a dampened spirit, they told us they had not even realized we were gone until they got the call from the lovely lady behind the counter at Baskin Robins. Thus, while our adventure may not have ended on a positive note, this experience changed a little bit of who I am, and a little bit of how I view things in life. Forcing myself to talk to strangers, seeing the world in one of its lowest forms of living, and witnessing the compassion and selflessness a person can display changed the way I view life. It has motivated me to talk more openly about life in general, live life to the fullest and in the best possible way I can, and, whenever I see the need of a helping hand, always be the one to jump on the boat and help whoever needs it. I learned that life comes at you in different ways, and adapting to the path life takes serves to shape who you may become in the future; this day just happened to be one of those days.