So I’m going to
school, much in the same way I do most every day. I go to cross this street... busy 109th street. I press the button for the
pedestrian light. The morning sun blinds me, making it difficult for me to see if the light has gone red to stop
traffic. Cars seem to be stopping, so I think it has. I go to take a step into the street.
But for some reason,
I stop. I flinch. I delay. Whatever you want to call it, something cause me to refrain from crossing the street at that second.
I glance left. ZOOM. A bus comes flying past, probably speeding up to get through the yellow light.
In case you didn’t quite catch what happened, I came within one step of being hit by that speeding bus, and wouldn’t have even seen it coming. Had I not flinched for a couple seconds, my life would have taken a dramatic turn. Death, or at least serious injury, would have been almost guaranteed.
At first, it hadn’t really occurred to what had just happened. If you were watching me, you wouldn’t have noticed anything out of the ordinary. After I had crossed the street and walked into school, it really dawned on me: I was just one step away from death. Every thing I had planned for the next week would have been irrelevant, because my primary concern would probably be regaining the ability to walk. That is, of course, if I was alive and conscious.
It got me thinking... why did I pause, and not make the unknowing
step of
death? Was is just coincidence? I’m not a particularly religious person, so I haven’t really considered the concept of being saved by a higher entity. After all, what more is a
miracle other than a
very improbable event?
Even to this point, I don’t think I’ve fully realized how close I came. Somehow, I think it’s shown me how much I take my life for granted. I mean, here I am, stressed out by my
writer's block on this
capital punishment essay, and had I been hit by the bus, I would want nothing more than to be sitting in this uncomfortable chair, beside that annoying girl that has her music playing nice and loud to annoy the world.