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THE INTERSECTION — Sometimes, despite our best intentions, things just don't go right for us. Even when we are trying our absolute best to do the right thing something inevitably goes wrong and it turns into a mess. I had way too many stories to pick from to illustrate this point, and that depressed me. But I think this one — that scarred me and others for years — will do the job.
It was seventh grade, my first year of middle school. I was nearly 6 feet tall and weighed about 160 pounds. That's a fair amount of size on a 13-year-old frame. I went to a junior high that was about a two-minute drive from my house. I was one of about five people from my elementary that went to this school. Why did I go to that one? No idea. But I did.
We were doing first-of-the-year testing and a whole brood of us were shoved into the cafeteria to complete hours of testing. There were two groups and somehow the giant group I was in had none of my compatriots from Silver Mesa Elementary. I was riding solo. There was about a five minute break in testing and kids congregated in groups and started chatting. I had no group and just stood there, awkwardly. A group of girls was chatting and giggling near me when one of the girls dropped her ring. The ring innocently rolled toward me and I thought this was my opportunity.
I figured I'd gingerly stop the ring with my foot. I'd pick it up, give it back and make some new friends. Who knows, maybe one of them would develop a crush on the man-sized boy with a high-pitched voice. Probably not, but maybe.
I lifted the toe of my right foot to innocently stop the ring of its rolling pursuit. As I did, however, I found out the ring was made of a soft metal and instead of harmlessly trapping it, I crushed it under my foot. The eyes on all the girls went wide and my expressionless face looked to my foot as I lifted my shoe. The ring was in pieces.
One of the girl's friends yelled, "Why would you do that?" while the owner of said ring ran out of the cafeteria in tears. Needless to say, I did not make any new friends that day and no new crushes were born and written about in notes passed during 3rd period. Instead, there was just talk of the massive bully that smashed a ring, just because.
My intentions were good, but my execution was all sorts of wrong and things did not go well. I think that is how the paramedics in this video feel.
This video was captured in 2020 in Poland. An ambulance goes through an intersection, but apparently forgot to latch the backdoors and a scene from a Benny Hill movie plays out. A stretcher comes flying out the back and rolls through the intersection.
Thankfully no one was on the stretcher and no one was hurt. But I feel for the paramedics. I am sure they meant well and are likely good at their jobs, but this is the moment that was caught on camera. So next time you see someone mess up and maybe smash your ring, take a moment and think about whether it was malicious, or just an awkward kid with too much weight.
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