Picture this: You saw the “Avengers” in theaters and you thought to yourself “I wish I could be like the superheroes.” Well, you too can be like Iron man or the Black Widow. Okay, maybe you cannot turn into an advanced suit or be an awesome super-secret agent, but you can save lives just by helping people with simple means such as picking up broken glass or removing a stray tire from the streets. Try to use your imagination for a few seconds and think about the disasters that could happen, not doing the latter … When I thought about it, I imagined the countless accidents and potential death count that can mass up if you didn’t remove that tire from the street. Although I did not do anything like that, let me tell you about the time, I indirectly saved a young man’s life.



It was two summers ago on a hot and dry Tuesday, My sister and I drove to a RadioShack to buy chargers for our phones. After a good 45 minutes of seemingly endless talking with the sales representative, My sister, Ivana, a short woman with straight and long hair, and I got thirsty and walked towards the bright door to Walgreens for some drinks. When we got there, we found out that it was closed and a there was a boy as tall as a handicap sign without the sign, just the stick. He seemed about 19 years old and we observed that he was completely wasted. I peeked at his necklace and deduced that his name was Brian. I was just about to go talk to him when I remembered that my mom said not to talk to strangers. I would have listened, but this was my only chance of saving a soul. If I succeeded then it was worth disobeying my mom; If not, my mommy was most likely going to punishment.


My sister shouted at me to walk back to the car but I told her to wait a few minutes and said that I will be right there. Seeing that he was stable, I approached Brian by telling him my name and I talked to him and asked him what was wrong. He said, “Don’t worry about me, I am having some trouble and I don’t want to get a 12 year old involved.” I played a trick on him in hopes of him calling me back and talking to me, so I slowly walked away and said bye. Suddenly, I felt his hand on my shoulder and he said, “Look, I use drugs and I lost my parents and my little brother because of it. I don’t suppose you can help me.” I responded “I can help you. You can try rehab, the system works and even famous people who used drugs went through rehab and now look where they are. Here is this card to a center. Take it and see if it will change your life.” He took the card and left me his number in case I wanted to check up on him.



A year later, I recalled that event while I was sitting on my couch and reading a book. It felt awkward to call him after a year and I did not think he would have remembered me. I finally plucked up the courage to call him and surprisingly enough he picked up and when I told him who I was, he remembered. Jokingly, he said to me that he was furious because I never called him. I apologized to him and asked him if going to Rehab worked. He told me to come by his workplace so we can catch up on things. He gave me his address and I arrived pretty fast because my sister knew this place. When I saw the building, I was astonished. My sister and I went inside to his area and glanced at the sign saying “Cisco Networking,” I spotted him and he called me over to his personal lounge. We sat down and I immediately noticed the wedding ring. I asked him about the ring and he replied that he got married 3 months back to his girlfriend. He proceeded to tell me that his parents live in his house along with his little brother. I was very ecstatic that rehab changed his life and that he had been sober for a full year. We continued to talk for a little bit and when it started to get late, I told my sister that I was ready to leave and we went back home. On the ride home, I thought to myself and said, “I accomplished something exactly like a superhero would.”