April 13, 2014--- My parent’s anniversary. The reason they
were out of town and the reason I was sitting on the side of the road in a tiny
purple car smashed against my little sisters, my brother, our dog, and my
seventy and eighty-something grandparents. Waiting. We had been on our way to
the buffet, my grandparent’s favorite spot, when a man on the street warned us
we had a flat, so my grandfather went to the nearest gas station and filled up
the back right tire. We were well on our way, riding the glorious ICC all the
way to the buffet where we would eat heaping plates of food and bountiful
amounts of ice-cream. I was beginning to doze off... and suddenly SCHHREEECHH it was as if a thousand gun
shots were going off in my head luckily that was not the issue. Unluckily we
had a flat on the middle of the highway.
As I would learn changing a tire is a young man’s game, and my grandfather at 84 years old was not a young man by any stretch of the imagination. He was capable, just not young. He got out the car, my grandmother got out of the car, and I contemplated getting out of the car. I was scared, I was scared that I would fall into the middle of the road, or trip and fall into the woods at least 100 feet below. But when my grandmother told me to get out I did as she said and I got out of the car and I stood on the side of the road, laid my arm against the railing of the woods one hundred feet below and I looked into the woods and saw two deer. Slowly making their way through the woods. Changing the tire was going to be hard nearly impossible actually, we were prepared to give up call a tow truck when a man pulled over and offered to help us. He told us how earlier in the day he had seen someone else’s car tire blow out and he didn’t stop to help, but after seeing us he knew that this time he had to stop. Here’s what I realized; everyone wants to believe that they are a good person, that deep down inside they would stop and help the old man and the children on the side of the road and help them change their tire. Everyone wants to believe they would be that one to help the person in need but not everyone is. This reminded me of the biblical story of the good Samaritan, the good Samaritan was the only one who stopped and helped a man sitting on the side of the road. According to the story several people such as the priest passed the man by such as a priest and a medic yet it was the good Samaritan who stopped and helped the man who had been beaten and robbed. The man who stopped was our good Samaritan, he was able to help us and send us on our way and asked for nothing in return. Anyway the point of this story was to say that we aren’t always the people we think we are. Almost all of us are inherently good but only a few of us are those extraordinarily good people would stop and be that Good Samaritan. I want to be one of those people so I made a promise to myself that when I had a car and I could finally drive I would be one of those people who would stop even if I had no idea what to do. I said to myself “Lauren, you should stop, just to say I have no idea how to help you, but if I’ll do whatever I can to.” And I think this applies to everything, not just driving down the highway. Being an extraordinarily good person is something I strive for and today I learned that it is the small things that make an extraordinarily good person, like helping an 80 year old man his wife and 4 grandchildren get off the side of the road.
As I would learn changing a tire is a young man’s game, and my grandfather at 84 years old was not a young man by any stretch of the imagination. He was capable, just not young. He got out the car, my grandmother got out of the car, and I contemplated getting out of the car. I was scared, I was scared that I would fall into the middle of the road, or trip and fall into the woods at least 100 feet below. But when my grandmother told me to get out I did as she said and I got out of the car and I stood on the side of the road, laid my arm against the railing of the woods one hundred feet below and I looked into the woods and saw two deer. Slowly making their way through the woods. Changing the tire was going to be hard nearly impossible actually, we were prepared to give up call a tow truck when a man pulled over and offered to help us. He told us how earlier in the day he had seen someone else’s car tire blow out and he didn’t stop to help, but after seeing us he knew that this time he had to stop. Here’s what I realized; everyone wants to believe that they are a good person, that deep down inside they would stop and help the old man and the children on the side of the road and help them change their tire. Everyone wants to believe they would be that one to help the person in need but not everyone is. This reminded me of the biblical story of the good Samaritan, the good Samaritan was the only one who stopped and helped a man sitting on the side of the road. According to the story several people such as the priest passed the man by such as a priest and a medic yet it was the good Samaritan who stopped and helped the man who had been beaten and robbed. The man who stopped was our good Samaritan, he was able to help us and send us on our way and asked for nothing in return. Anyway the point of this story was to say that we aren’t always the people we think we are. Almost all of us are inherently good but only a few of us are those extraordinarily good people would stop and be that Good Samaritan. I want to be one of those people so I made a promise to myself that when I had a car and I could finally drive I would be one of those people who would stop even if I had no idea what to do. I said to myself “Lauren, you should stop, just to say I have no idea how to help you, but if I’ll do whatever I can to.” And I think this applies to everything, not just driving down the highway. Being an extraordinarily good person is something I strive for and today I learned that it is the small things that make an extraordinarily good person, like helping an 80 year old man his wife and 4 grandchildren get off the side of the road.
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