Do you ever look at the people on the side of the road and not even glance back? It all started in the summer between grades third and forth. My cousin, Kristy, was babysitting my brother, Trevor, and I. My cousin would always take us to places in this case we were going to a water park. (Keep in mind that Kristy did not own a cell phone.) I was so excited to go to the water park and I had no idea what was going to happen after.

I was as hyper as a chicken running around with his head cut off. Waiting in the backseat was too much for me so I asked, “Are we there yet?”

My cousin would reply, “Nope, not yet.” When we finally got there I ran and jumped right off the diving board, being the fearless eight year old. Kristy met up with a friend that was also babysitting, so we planned to leave at the same time. We were going the same way too, so Kristy said, “You can leave first.” I got in the car not knowing what was going to happen next.

It’s funny how things can go from being so good to so bad. We left so now we were on the highway. I started to doze off in the backseat from swimming. After I start to get comfortable I hear a loud noise BOOM! My cousin got out and sure enough the tire was blown. The tire was as broken up as a heart healing from a bad break up. My cousin started to cry like the time when she say her dad in a casket and at the moment I still wasn’t sure what was going on so when I saw her start to cry I knew it was bad. My brother and I started to cry, which is saying a lot because my brother thinks he is a tough go so I thought my life was over.

The waiting seemed like it would never end. Finally a red truck merged onto the shoulder in front of us and backed up his truck close to our car. The guy came out of the truck and said, “Hi my name is Bob,” while he showed us his ID saying that he was a citizen and a construction worker. He fixed the tire which seemed to be over in seconds.
After he finished my cousin said, “Thank you,” with relief and then we were on our way home. Now I could go back to taking a nap.


This experience was very odd because not many people can say they were stranded on the side of the road not knowing how to fix a tire. At the start of the incident I was scared because I had no idea what was really going on. The experience caused me to change things by I always look at the people on the side of the road and wonder how they got there? Will they get out? When I get my license I will feel guilty and want to help people on the side of the road just like that guy helped us. Even though I don’t have my license I will always bring my cell phone in every car I go in. As a result of the incident I feel really lucky for that guy to have come so quickly it was amazing. Something I learned about others is that there is always someone out there willing to help others.