Oh decisions
My names Josh, and I have been the starting quarterback at my high school sense I was a freshman and am the captain this year. So it goes without saying that I am a really popular person at my school. It was about half way through my sophomore year, and I was walking home from school. It was about 7 blocks away, so I decided to save gas and walk home form school everyday. I had never really noticed anyone who walked the same path as me because most kids lived in the opposite direction from the school than I did.
Today I noticed that this guy about my height with jet-black hair and blue eyes was walking in the same direction I was. He looked like he was carrying everything that he had eve taken to school in his backpack and most of his books in his arms. I had never noticed him before, maybe because I normally talk on the phone to my girlfriend as I walked home. As he was walking, he never took his eyes off the ground, even though he had to have known I was walking about 15 feet behind him. He had to have heard my footsteps.
We went about 2 of the 7 blocks to my house like this. The blocks are about ¼ of a mile each. I started to hear a sound that was like people running coming from behind us. Next thing I knew, I was being pushed aside by a bunch of my team running. They ran right into the guy in front of me. They knock all of his books out of his arms and took his backpack and emptied it out on the sidewalk and proceeded to hit him numerous times. I ran up to them and told them to knock it off. I hit Jackson, the Co-Captain, just to shove him off of the kid. I didn’t know who this kid was, but all I knew was that he needed help. When the team realized it was me, they gathered themselves up and left the kid with all of his stuff everywhere.
When I looked away from the guys walking away, all I could see when my eyes met his was terrible sadness and pain. I asked him “DO you need some help picking up your stuff?” He looked absolutely shocked that I had talked to him. I said, “My names Josh, what’s-“ and he cut me off saying, “I know who you are.” Then I said, “What’s your name?” He had a look of shock on his face again. “Are you really talking to me?” All I could say was, “yea I am, but I don’t know your name, so if you could tell me, that would be great.” He said his name was Shawn. Then he smiled. He said “I never thought I would ever talk to anyone like you in my life. No one ever really notices me around school or anywhere else. Thanks for the help, it means a lot.” He seemed so happy that I had stopped the team from beating his and that I cared to help him even though I didn’t know him.
We gathered all of his stuff and stared walking again. I apologized for the team saying that they’re all jerks and ass holes that don’t know how to treat a person with respect. That’s why I’m not friends with any of them. It turns out that he lives on the same street as me and is in my class. Im really surprised that I have never seen him around. Then he said that he never goes out to lunch because he doesn’t want to sit alone and that he walks home at 6 because he wants to avoid being bullied by the team. I thought, “So that’s why I have never seen you around…”
I walked him home, then walked back to my house. The next morning Friday, I walked down to his house just about the time I normally go to school. I knocked on his door to see if he was still home or if he had left for school. Turns out he was still home, and I asked if he wanted to walk to school with me. We walked to school together talking about random stuff and he said that I was the first friend that he has ever really had. When we got to school I asked him to meet me out on the football field after school. So after last period I walked to the stadium and there he was in the middle of the field kicking perfect field goals. I told him he had an amazing talent and asked why he didn’t try out for the team. He said, “Because im afraid that they would beat the shit out of me everyday. They wouldn’t accept me I would just be another punching bag for them.”
Practice was about to start and I talked to coach and had Shawn stay for practice. Coach was so amazed he put Shawn on the team and I made the team apologize to him for being ass holes.
After practice we walked home, and I called Shawn at about 9 saying that there was this party at my girlfriends house and asked if he wanted to come with me. He seemed so happy and immediately said yes. I drove over to his house and picked him up. He asked if he could talk to me about something important and asked if I could pull the car over. He asked if I remember that he was carrying so much home from school on Thursday. He said that he was doing this because he didn’t want his parents to have to do it for him. He was going to commit suicide that night because he knew no one cared about him, not even his own father or mother. Shawn showed me who he was at his weakest moment. I never thought that I could be someone that would save a persons life with a random act of kindness. I always seemed like the typical football star to everyone else.
This really touched me. Shawn had a tear run down his check as he was thanking me for saving his life and showing him that people do care about him. He hugged me really tightly and made me feel special. I didn’t know what to say. Finally I managed to come up with the words, “Everyone has their low points, and its up to the people that care about them to help get them through.”
The rest of the year passed and we became such great friends. He became known around the school and had a lot more friends and was also co-captain of the football team with me our senior year. It was a tradition at our school for students who want to speak at graduation to submit their speech and have the teachers pick which one of the students gets to read theirs. This year Shawn had been chosen. As he walked up to the podium, I thought back to the day I had met him, and saved his life. I looked up at him and realized that he was looking at me, making all his eye contact on me. His speech began with the words, “A true friend.” He looked back at me after he read these words. He told the story of how him and I met. He told everyone why he carried everything home that day. He told the whole class that he was going to commit suicide. He shared his low point with the class. He then said, “I know that I am not the same person I was before I met Josh. I wasn’t stable and wasn’t healthy, but because of him I am. He saved me and brought me back to see the light and happiness that the world and life can bring.” He also said, “Friendship is the best present you can ever give to someone. It goes the furthest and has the biggest effect on someone’s heart.” And that’s how he closed his speech.
I looked around and realized that almost everyone in the room was crying. His parents looked at me, with their eyes filled with tears, and mouthed the words, “thank you.” And smiled. That was the best moment of my life knowing that I had changed someone so much. I walked up on the stage with Shawn and gave him a hug, and walked him off the stage. That was the perfect way to end high school, the best way possible. The best decision I ever made.
