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.
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