Chapter 5: Right Place, Right Time

[i] "Every parting is a form of death, as every reunion is a type of heaven" - Tryon Edwards [/i]

Have you ever been in a situation where you ended being at the right place at the right time? Or have you ever been at the wrong place at the right time, or any variation of that sort? They say that everything happens for a reason, and that we end up encountering people that have major impacts on our decisions, ideas, and our very way of thinking and processing information. I have had a variety of these encounters and they certainly affected my life and the way I went about my daily activities. Here I will be describing a few events that had impacted me, both the positive and negative, and a situation I found myself in just the other day.

Everyone encounter, every thought has a reason behind it. For most, we tend to think about personal and intimate relationships in which configures our train of thought, and how they really affected our lives and situations. The first and most impactful relationship I could think of had major influences in my life, and how I went about interacting with others moving forward, and it really took me a while before I was able to come to terms with it and how it ended, as I move on with my life, for better or for worse. At the time, she was the first childhood friend I have ever made, our families were really close, and she ended up being my crush and for sometime my highschool sweetheart. I didn't know much about relationships at the time, and we lived far away from each other growing up. But we had talked everyday, shared everything with each other, and at some point we ended up falling in love with one another. The best and only example I had about successful relationships at the time were through my parents, and they taught me that in order to make a relationship work is that you had to have trust, understand, and willing to sacrifice needs and wants for that other person. In our last year of highscool, we were talking about colleges, and I decided to make that sacrifice and apply for the same colleges as her. We were on mutual relations at this point due to uncertainty about the future, but my naïve self truly thought she was my soul mate at the time, and I wanted to do everything in my power to make it work. I would never push the subject, but I continued to be a supportive friend and never pushed the subject during this time, and just maybe, hopefully, we would get back together in the future.

By sheer luck and dedication, we ended up going to the same school, out of state, and I was thinking that this could be it. I kept my distance but also made it clear that if she needed anything at all, I would be willing to put my needs aside to make sure she was taken care of. Her mother had also asked me to make that promise, and for someone I was in love with, I would do it. Fast forward a couple a months into our first school year, and I was sensing something was off. I was feeling severally homesick, struggling with school for the first time in my life, and my friendship with her was... off. She was at my dorm room every single day, but made little to no communications with me anymore, more so being there to be with my dormmates as they did their own activities. That in itself was fine, but it put me a little off on how I introduced them to her, yet I was never invited to their activities or informed about what they were doing. I tried dismissing it, but it made me feel lonely more so than ever. I didn't have alot of friends since I was brand new, and I was always busy with school and applying for work that that I started to feel like an outcast to everyone. I didn't know what was happening to cause everyone pushing me away. Then one day I received a call, something that changed that relationship forever and effected my mentality moving forward.

My parents called me, and originally I thought they were there checking in with my status. But they revealed to me that she called them, saying that I was being "creepish" and "stalking her", almost obsessive over her. I was in shock, and I didn't know how to react. I knew there was a misunderstanding somewhere, and I needed to confront her about the accusations. If anything, I was barely talking to her, and she would be over every single day without invitation from me, so I had no idea where all this was coming from. When I finally talked to her, asking her what's going on, she had "heard" that I was spreading rumors' about her, that I was telling everyone that she was a slut, and how we had sex over and over again, and how people were telling her I was following her every location. I honestly didn't know how to defend myself at this point in time. Both of us knew I was a virgin still, and I was consistently busy with school life to even do anything of that sort. I was bewildered, and in shock. The only thing I said was "Who on earth told you that???". She wouldn't say, and looked dismissive at the question, but continued to belittle me, and stated "you will be lucky I can ever consider you a friend again", and stormed off. I just sat there, broken hearted and distraught. I had no idea what happened, and it stayed that way ever since. She was still over my dorm room everyday after that conversation, and it became clear that I was not wanted around, by her or my dormmates. I had to reside sleeping in the study hall after that, being isolated from people I thought were my friends and being ousted like some unwanted pet. She later started dating one of my dormmates, and that's when I put two and two together. I was lied about to get me out of the picture. After that, I really started learning about what life was about, and started to heavily distrust people. I Moved out of the school and started living in my own flat nearby. I had to work three jobs just to support myself out there alone, and still full time school. I was struggling, and I was still feeling alone. There was one friend who would reach out at times, and she would later become good friends with me later on, but at the time I was still distrusting, and very depressed about life. Do to my struggles and failures, it led to my suicidal ideation, and later caused me to be hospitalized. After those events I had to move back home, where I had met another old soul from my past.

I was now back home, just trying to get by day by day. I was out of school, jobless, and still trying to recover from the events that transpired. One day I was walking my dog, then out of nowhere this car pulled up next to me, and the window opened. A friend from highschool recognized me, and said hello. I called him "friend", but I really didn't know him much. We were in band together in middle school, and did the swim team together for a little bit but that was it. We never really communicated outside of that. Little did I become aware that I was in the right place and right time at that moment, and he would show me how to enjoy the blessings in life, at least for a bit. I would still have trouble moving forward, but he tried and tried with me, and never really gave up. It became kind of fun, though he was far from a good friend to have. He was a drug addict, broke, constantly in trouble, and liked to live dangerously. But I never treated him differently from anyone else, and he had later admitted that he always looked up to me, that I was his rolemodel and wanted to be like me. Honestly, it made me feel good that he said that, and we had wild adventures moving forward, being a ying and yang kind of duo, me being the voice of reason, and him being completely free spirited. Regardless, he was wacky and wild, and helped me cheer up whenever I was down. I had unfortunately lost him some time ago, and I honestly don't know what happened to him. His phone was out of service, he was longer living where he was was, and it seemed like he disappeared off the face of the planet. I honestly wish him well, and I miss him, but he taught me two valuable lessons. Never judge a person based on their history, but by who they are, and that life is too short to live in misery and sadness, to find that joy in anything that you can do. I still have trouble with that and consistently think of the past and the actions I had committed which feed into my depressive nature, but it's a lesson I am trying to cope with and implement.

Now fast forward to two days ago. As the previous chapters elaborated on, I am currently going through a legal process, and my lawyer explained to me that I do not have the liberty of being at the wrong place at the wrong time anymore, that any situation I fall under, whether it be a car accident or being a witness to a crime, or my name being mentioned anywhere can be an excuse to lock me up until the proceedings are done. Needless to say, I've been very cautious about everything I do, and to avoid and ignore situations that I see unfolding. However, I found myself in a position where I needed to react to, and though it was the right thing to do, I am worried that it may lead into potential trouble moving forward.

Two days ago I had visited my grandmother at her place. She needed up replacing the airfilter in her apartment, and to help her reorganize her cabinets as she was unable to reach in certain places anymore due to recent injuries. I was leaving the community, and as I was driving down the road, I noticed this skinny, frail, old women on the side of the road. Lets call her "Ms. Jackson". It was a red light and I was witnessing her first hand. She was trying to cross the road, and she moved like a snail, dragging her feet one at a time trying to balance herself with a cane. [i] Poor thing [/i] was my first thought. I wanted to help, but my lawyers words rang in my ear, and I stayed put. Anything were to happen, I would automatically be at fault, whether it was me or not. As I was watching her, I was looking closely and saw her almost trip on herself. I swear she was going to kill herself at this pace. My conscious got the best of me, and despite the discretions and advise I was given, I just cursed under my breath, put my hazards on, and got out of the car.

"Excuse me ma'am, do you need a ride somewhere??", I had asked her. She slowly turned to look at me, and excitedly exclaimed "YES!!". I could tell she wasn't all there, despite having proper language and speaking properly, and there was something off about her. I guided her to my car as fast as she could walk, and pointed out that its dangerous to be alone walking in the middle of the street without someone being nearby. I asked if she had anyone living with her, and she had no real answer, that her son did but was living in a different state. I took a deep breathe, and asked her if she knew where she lived. Fortunately. she lived in the same community as my grandmother, and we were close by. I said I would take her home, but little did I know what was going to happen then.

As I was driving her home, we went through the guard gate, showed the guard my ID, and he looked at the passenger side, where his face was in awe and in shock. "Ms. Jackson?! Where have you been??? Security has been looking for you everywhere!!"

[i] Oh no, what did I get myself into... [/i]

"I just found her on the side of the street and talking her home" I explained. "What happened??"

"Just take her home and the security will explain everything" 

Now I am worried for my life. I wasn't sure what I gotten myself into, or what situation unfolded, but here goes another example of me trying to be a nice guy getting me in trouble. I collected myself, and took her back to her apartment, but the scene that awaited me was not what I was expecting. 

Water was flooding from her apartment door, the air felt like it was well over 100 degrees, and water from dripping down below into the residences houses below her apartment. Apparently Ms. Jackson forgot to turn off her flame, gas stove and left the water running to the point of flooding. She was apparently returning from super market (lord knows how on earth she got there in the first place given her condition) as she left her building in a state of a flooding and fire hazard. My mouth is agap, and unsure what got her in this situation in the first place. Security began questioning me what I was doing with Ms. Jackson, and I simply stated that I picked her up on the side of the road to be friendly, as I saw she was in no condition to be walking at all. That's when I had to be front about it,

"Listen, I have no idea who this lady is, and I only just met her. I have no ties to this or what had happened, but obviously she cannot be living by herself. If she has any relative or friends you can contact, do it, but she is a hazard to herself, and obviously to others right now. You have to help her".

The security officer understood the situation, but tried making me liable simply because she was in my "care". They tried getting any and all of my information, which I refused to do, and had to quickly make my leave before things got worse. I just told them that this is your responsibility and I had no part of this at all. As I left, I was still trying to wrap my head around what just happened. I almost got in trouble for trying to do the right thing. At the very least, I can say I did what in my conscious mind was the best thing to do, but it almost cost me my freedom if I stayed and provided any information to them. Unser the same circumstances, I would do that again, but I was at the right place at the right time, and ended up helping someone in need. If something happened to her as she was crossing the street, I wouldn't know how I would feel. At least I was able to get her home, and hopefully she receives the help she needs. But man, what a close situation it was for me.