Did you know that in some life or death situations a savior is only a phone call away? The problem with this is that people believe it’s too much of a responsibility on their part and they expect others to act so they don’t have to. In the world today people are getting lazy and we’ve expected too much out of, “the next guy” and that’s when we rely too much on them to do something but at the same time they rely on you to be the responsible one and there’s a lack of communication here that we bring upon ourselves. As a result of this failure of communication most people fail to act in time and there ends up being consequences such as death or maybe even a robbery that you saw or could have prevented but decided not to get involved. Some learn from these mistakes of not acting, others could care less even though all they had to do was make a phone call to the police.

I never knew that one minute could change a person’s life forever until it was my time to see for myself. One Saturday evening I had decided to take a walk through my neighborhood, I couldn’t stand being cooped up in that house anymore, walking through my neighborhood was the only freedom I could really have. As the sun began to set the night’s darkness shed a dark shadow onto the sidewalks only to be lit a minute late by the flickering street lamps. My point of destination was a local gas station only ten minutes away from my home, they had the best homemade cookies there and the owner of the store took a liking to me and would occasionally slip one to me for free. On my walk I passed a garden that was surrounded with a red picket fence, I could smell the freshness of the tomatoes and the crisp scent of cucumbers the aroma reminded me of a rainy summer day. As I continued on my walk I had come to the intersection before the gas station when a man that was standing on the corner begging for change had asked me if I had five dollars to spare, I had said sorry and that I didn’t have any money which was a lie. The man was just looking for some money to by himself dinner, his facial expression after I had denied him money sent a chill down my spine, it was filled with failure and complete hopelessness. I continued across the street to get my goodies from the gas station and after purchasing them I headed out the door only to see that same man from the corner run into the store after I was already out. I thought to myself that he must have gotten some change from some generous person but I was horribly mistaken. I heard yelling coming from inside as I walked away but I thought nothing of it. I was only a minute or two away from the gas station when I heard sirens blaring and the sound was getting closer and then out of no where I hear running footsteps behind me and I turn around to see that same exact man from the corner sprinting pass me with one hand full of cash and the other with a gun. He didn’t stop for me he just kept running since the police were on the lookout for him. Something sparked inside me and I realized that I could have stopped that man from commiting a robbery by giving up five out of my ten dollars so that he could have just walked into the store and gotten his dinner and walked out a happy man. I felt that I didn’t react the way I should have when I heard the yelling from the store and I should have acted quicker and maybe the man wouldn’t have gotten away with the burglary but I think what stopped me was that it was too dangerous to get involved and there was the possibility of getting hurt.

As a result of that robbery the gas station lost a lot of customers and a lot of profits which eventually led to its closing and now that the gas station is gone so are those homemade cookies I loved and also my freedom of getting out of my own house. On my way home that night I had walked the same path as I did there and as I passed that garden again all I could smell was the stench of rotten tomatoes and wet soggy cucumbers it felt as though everything died that night. After that night my walks became less frequent and if I did happen to go on a walk it would be in the opposite direction of where that station used to be.