Remember when we were all innocent? When we didn’t worry about dating, or money, or the future. No matter what the circumstances of birth, we had one thing in common, our innocence. We never had to face heartbreak, rejection, or the daily pressures of living in our society. We didn’t grasp the concept of death. We knew no evil. Sadly, we have lost this innocence. We have all lost it. Most people couldn’t tell you when this happened. They wouldn’t be able to pinpoint a specific event, but I can.

Three seconds.

My view on life, on family, on death, it all changed in just 3 seconds.

It was my grandparents’ 50th wedding anniversary. As a gift, we decided that we would take them up to Niagara Falls. They had always talked about it and had never had the money or opportunity to go there. We arrived at night. The weather was dreary. It was windy and freezing. Regardless, we were having a great time.

The next day, we went down to the actual waterfall. The freshness of the air took my breath away. The mist slowly rising from the bottom of the runoff river, and the roaring noise of the 600,000 gallons of water per second falling over the top of the cliff was awe inspiring. But beauty would soon turn into horror. My mom asked me to take a picture of my grandparents standing in front of the waterfall. I gladly grabbed the camera from her and told them to face me. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed something unusual. I pulled my mom next to me and pointed in the distance.

“What is that guy doing!” I yelled, to the annoyance of the other tourists around me. Slowly one by one, people started realizing what I noticed.

“Is he working here? Oh my god that’s dangerous!!!” No one was answering my questions. I focused in on what I saw. There was a guy, dressed in all black, that had jumped the railing and was nearing the edge. Within one second he started sprinting and jumped over the edge. No hesitation involved.

“Did you guys also see what I just saw?” Everyone nodded.

“What do we do? I mean, is there really a chance he could still be alive?” I was known for asking the questions that no one wanted to hear.
“That’s 170 feet onto water that feels like concrete. Even if he survived the impact he would die of hypothermia within a minute,” my dad answered.

Within 5 minutes police had arrived and started questioning witnesses. The officer told my mom they had suicides here about 6 times a year. People wanted to go out with a bang. They questioned my parents for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, I was sitting on the sidewalk, looking over into one of Mother Nature’s most beautiful creations, questioning how anyone could suffer enough to take their own life. But like the cop said, it’s no surprise.

How many more suicides do we need before we realize that what we say hurts people? Even after this directly affecting my life, I catch myself all the time, regretting something I said, wishing I had helped that person, not talking to the “new kid”. I like to joke. I say a lot of mean things, but I don’t mean 99 percent of it. That doesn’t mean it isn’t hurtful.

I lost my innocence that day. That act of horror, of evil will forever be embroidered in my mind. Maybe it helped to lose my innocence. It helped me mature. Sure, I was too young to witness this. But as much as it hurt me, it also taught me.

I leave you with this, be nice to each other. Just like Ellen says. Help each other out. You never know if your simple act of kindness could save a life.