I view life as a precious gift given to us by someone. This is a gift that we didn’t ask for and this isn’t a give some people want. However, this gift was given to us for a reason and that reason can’t always be seen.

I understand that some people have a harder time understanding the true consequences for decisions and I understand that for some people that this process comes quicker than others. What I mean by that is it takes a split second for someone to make the decisions that could impact the rest of their life and the lives of their loved ones.

For me, I like to help people I think I have been doing it for a very long time and it’s been one of my favorite things to do. I don’t do it to achieve that “feel good feeling”, I do what I do because one day, I could save a life.

To be honest, this week I discovered that, yes, I did save a life, and that person is so thankful that I helped them.

Five months ago...

I walked by a guy who seemed to have a lot gong one and he seemed flustered, stressed, upset and just not completely there. I sat there, on the sidewalk and talked to him from a distance. We sat about five meters away from each other and these five meters seemed to be the distance that was appropriate.

We both sat there and the discussion we had was both very powerful and spectacular… but the way it all started was with a “Hey man, are you okay?’”

After that one sentence, a wall was broken and we started to open up and talk to each other. It takes a lot for someone to open up to another complete stranger but in times of need and in times that someone feels alone he or she will.

That one simple sentence was the thing that helped him and helped me know that yes, he will be OK.

Let’s fast forward to now...

Five months later, I was walking to class and I ended up seeing him again. Then we talked for about two minutes and he told me that day five months ago I saved his life by using that one sentence: “hey man, are you okay?” Something I say out of courtesy helped someone. That sentence was the reason he opened up. That was the reason he was able to talk to me.

It’s been about a couple days now and the idea of helping someone and then saving someone's life with that sentence has been a great feeling. However, I feel as if that the one thing that I prevented was the most important thing I could have done in the past few weeks.