Hasa's Memoir

Ghasak Dabbach

Nichole Neff Gaunt

English 101-046

24 October 2012

The Learned Lesson

            Life is about learning lessons, the lessons that are going to move you forward from where you stand right now and make you stronger. Every second you live is a chance for success. There is always a reason for everything that you go through. Each day is a chance to gain  memories, some are going to be the reason for your smile and some are going to be the reason you drop your tears, these memories are the ones that are called lessons, because they are the ones that are going to stay in your mind forever. I recently had an experience while I was eighteen years old. It was at the end of my second semester in college, that will stay in my mind for ever, teaching me important lessons about behaving around people, mostly around strangers, and respect because that is what everyone’s life build on. 

            I have been through many things since day number one. I learned many lessons; some are still in my mind to this day. One of the events I have been through, that taught me many things at the same time, was the day I got followed by a gangster woman. My story started off with me having a wonderful day, I was in the best mood ever. My last class got canceled on a Monday, which was awesome, so I decided to have lunch with my friends before I go to my sweet home, and meet up with my lovely bed, to take a perfect nap. I got in my car, put the radio on, rolled all of my windows down to enjoy the beautiful weather, and started heading toward my house. I was driving on a road called “Martin Luther King” because it was the closest road that is going to take me to I-25, which is the fastest way to get to my house. While I was driving on “Martin Luther King” road, I was in a big hurry to get home, because as a college student, one minute counts as a difference for me.

There was a black truck that was driving in front of me, it was driving about 5mph less than the speed limit, which got me a little mad and had me start driving pretty close to it from the back. I started to notice that what I’m doing is getting the driver to drive a little faster, because she didn’t want her nice truck to get hit or scratched from the back. Once I noticed that the driver has getting pissed, I kept on doing it, because I was in a good mood, so I thought to myself “seeing someone bugged is always so much fun to watch.” We stopped at a red light before we get on the high way. From what I could see, she was an older woman, the end of her thirties as I guessed. She looked really gangster, because of the music that she was listening to loudly, such as dirty and rap music. She also wasn’t good looking at all; she had many scars on her face, dark eyeliner, and messy dark hair. She was wearing many big chains around her neck, a lot of piercings on her ear, and a big black shirt. She looked at me through her mirror and starting saying things, I couldn’t hear her because her music was very loud, as well as mine. I looked back at her and said “what do you want?” She rolled down her window, put her hand outside, gave me the dirtiest look ever, and flipped me off. The light turned green, we both just got on I-25. I was very mad at that moment because of her rudeness towards me for a worthless reason. I started speeding, moved to her left side, and flipped her off while I was passing her. I’m driving on I-25, suddenly I notice that the women with the black truck had been following me since we got on I-25, I was very scared because all the cars are passing other cars, except for her. Finally, I got to the exit I wanted, yet she is still following me. I thought to myself “now I’m about to exit, and she will continue towards wherever she is going” but my thought was extremely wrong. She exit with me, she is still following me. Seeing me laughing got her way too mad, thinking I’m laughing about her, I had mixed feelings. She didn’t know I was laughing and shaking at the same time, because I was very scared from the outcome from her side towards me. The only way I had was to get her lost from me. I couldn’t stop, because if I did, I’m sure she would of beat me up, break my car, or shoot me. I also didn’t want to go home, because if she knew, she might do something crazy. I kept on driving around, still trying to get her lost. She looked like she wasn’t going to stop until she beat me up. I’m very lucky that a police car started driving by me. At first, she didn’t care and kept on following me, everywhere I go. After a while, he noticed that I was following the police car, which finally had gotten her to give up on following me because she was too scared of me telling the police man about her following me, since we got on I-25.

            I have finally gotten home safe. Got out of my car, and ran home to my moms. I told her about what had just happened, she got very mad at me and told me that people like that would not care about killing someone in the middle of thousands of people. She also told me “never disrespect someone you do not know, especially while you are driving.” She was right. After I had a long conversation with my mom, I sat alone in my room to think of many things, such as what  might have happened to me if she got, so many scary ideas was running through my head because many people out there are living a very worthless life, which makes them not afraid of killing someone, or even getting themselves in a car accident just to hurt someone that they disliked for a very worthless reason.

            The problem that I had been through has taught me many things, true it only lasted for about fifteen minutes, but it sure is going to last with me until the very last day of my life. It was one of the most important lessons that I have learned my whole entire life. It made me realize that this life is based on respect, it’s based on respecting all of the people around us, weather we knew them or were strangers. I learned that to earn respect, you must show respect. I have learned that everyone has their own life and problems, just because I was happy and in a very good mood that day does not mean that everybody else around me is too. It taught me how to react in front of someone I don’t know very well or have never met before. It also has taught me to think before I act in front of everyone around me. No one can ever understand life, as well as what is going in other people’s minds, which does not give us the right to say or misbehave however we want to.  I’m very thankful that I had gone through this problem, because it taught me so much. It taught me so many important things, such as respect. It is true that I may have lost my life because of being so selfish, but I did not. I believe that God wanted me to go through all this scary moment, just so I can learn a lesson. This problem has definitely changed my life for the better because of the many things that I have learned from it. It has absolutely made me a much more mature person.