Jorge Medel
Mrs. Jepsen
Memoir
26, September, 2012
True meaning of life and death
As I walk towards my fluffy, comfortable, brand new couch that we just bought, a flash of white light appears in the distance by my big living room widow. Following this flash was a continuous loud noise. It wasn’t lighting and thunder. For a split second I thought it was a firework blowing up in the air, with its bright beautiful colors, I soon came back to reality to find out that a handheld mechanism was causing this torment. Holding it was a person that was filled with pure anger and rage. The bullets passed right by my face, signaling me to run for my life, but the only thought that came to my head was life itself. I felt my heart pumping so fast that it felt as if it had stopped for a moment because of the fear running through my veins. Behind the door of our bathroom, my little brother in a crouching position with his hands covering his head.

“Isaac, get down!” I screamed at the top of my lungs as I ran towards him.

“What’s happening?” he cried out loud in fear.

“We’re getting shot at! Run to the garage. Hurry!”I was surprised he heard me with the loud gun shots getting closer and closer.

At first I thought I was in a movie and this was the war scene, but it was real and my house was being shot at by 3 gang members. As my little brother and I got to the garage, hoping we were safe, I told him to hide. Cold, darkness filled the garage while I peeked out the door with half of my body sticking out. I saw one of the shooters running through my neighbor’s backyard, towards the alley. He suddenly stopped and his face made my body freeze and the color of my skin turn as white as snow. It wasn’t because he had a gun in his hand pointed towards me; it was the fact that this gang member holding this pistol was my older brother’s best friend. To look at his face and think back of how my own mom practically raised this kid, made my so mad and I wish he didn’t have a gun so I could beat his ass. His name was XXXXX, we knew him since he was 3 years old and he was practically like a brother to us.

"Hey!” I called his name as I was still in shock.

He turned around noticing it was me and not my older brother, that’s who they were after; he pointed the gun down and continued running. Till this day I still don’t understand why he didn’t shoot me, he had me cold and defenseless, but he didn’t fire at me.
After the shooting stopped, the police arrived my family was safe including my older brother. This moment change or impacted my life in a huge way, because not a lot of people haven’t gone through the experience I have gone through. I could’ve been killed or lost one of my family members that I love very much. From that moment on I learn to live life to the fullest day by day, you can die any second and at any moment. It’s true I almost experienced it, it’s sad that some people take their life for granted. Another way it impacted my life was it caused my family and I to move to a better environment where I met new people. I found something that I truly like doing, which is playing soccer. If it wasn’t for that shooting we would still probably be over there, my brother and I would still be hanging out with the wrong crowd. Who knows, something worse could have occurred like one of us being killed.. This was one of those times that something bad happened but something good came out of it. It was an experience that was scary and I wouldn’t want to experience it again.