The woman was from around the neighborhood and she had a dog, and even though I didn’t know her I figured she was nice. I watched her from the window overlooking the street. Her dog was lying down, and she had to coax her up and across the road. The dog barely made it to the other side before limping to a stop, and again she lay down, this time directly in front of our house. After she stayed for a few minutes, unwilling to budge, my mother slipped out the door to talk to her owner. My sister and I cautiously joined her and soon amused ourselves with petting the dog, an aging black lab.

The woman explained that her dog had trouble walking, and she was trying to get her to their home, just down the street from us. Mom went inside and came back with a bowl of water. After a good few minutes, the black lab was thankful for the drink but still refused to move. I watched her for a while, and then an idea came to me. I told the woman to wait there and ran as fast as I could into the house.

A few minutes later, I emerged with my own stuffed dog, the one I first received as an infant. The real life dog perked up immediately, stood, and walked towards it. I bent down, positioned the toy in front of her muzzle, and walked it forward, and sure enough the black lab followed. I walked down the rest of my street, keeping my stuffed animal just far enough away to keep her following me until we came to her house at last.

“You saved her.” I don’t remember anything else the woman said, but I remember those words. “You saved her.”

I especially remembered them five years later, when I found myself in front of the pet store counter, assessing the rescues in need of homes. I knew I needed a dog in my life, but I was having trouble putting together the funds. I figured in the meantime I would at least visit the pets, until one day the woman behind the counter stared at me. I looked up at her and recognition flashed across both of our faces.

I don’t remember all the words I said to her, or all the words she said to me. But I do remember what I heard as she placed a black lab puppy in my arms. “Free of charge.”

I was at the grocery store busy with my weekly shopping when I stumbled upon a wallet in the middle of the cereal aisle. Naturally I picked it up and started looking for anything that would help me find the owner. It was full to bursting with credit cards and cash but I could not find any identification. I decided to hand it over to the manager of the store.When I turned the corner I came across two men in a heated conversation. One appeared to be a customer in his late sixties and the other a harassed looking employee. The gentleman appeared to be irritated and I wanted nothing more than to just slip past both of them when I overheard the costumer going on about how he lost his wallet and saw him handing over his business card with all his details to the employee.I interrupted him and asked him to describe the wallet to me and what was inside it and handed it over to him when I was convinced it was his. He thanked me profusely and wanted to show his gratitude by buying me a drink. I declined, wished him best of luck and left. I never really thought about the incident until years later when I was applying for a job at different pharmaceuticals companies. I had just graduated from school and was eager to finally make my way in the world. So far, I hadn’t had any luck and was still looking for the ideal job I had been dreaming of for the last 5 years. I finally got a second interview from an office I had my heart set on for a while .To say I had a tough morning would be an understatement. The shower broke, I had no hot water. Later I burnt my breakfast and spilled milk on my freshly pressed suit. The extra time it took me to clean up the mess and rummage around in my closet for something to wear, left me with no time to compose myself and caused so much anxiety and stress to my already frayed nerves that I barely made it out of the apartment. I was already running late and it started to rain. I was finally able to hail a taxi after standing in the pouring deluge for 10 minutes and got to the interview 15 minutes late. Things really took a turn for the worst after that. I was rattled, I couldn’t keep up with the interviewer and got confused over the questions I could have answered in my sleep. By the time the interview ended I just wanted to crawl into a hole and die. As I was leaving I saw a man come out of the elevator who looked vaguely familiar.He looked up at me, smiled and said, “What are you doing here?” And I knew everything was going to be alright.

There are still days when I think of that. Those events that unraveld themselves almost five years ago. Life was so different then, we had no idea much things would change, just because someone ate a bad bat.

Five years ago I had just started uni, traveling back and forth every day. What an exhausting thing to do, sit on a train, on a bus, on a bench, just waiting for time to pass or the cinery. One day, as I was waiting for another bus to come, to take me an another one hour drive towards school, this elderly man needed help at the stairs. In Finland, it’s such a crazy thing that no one helps, we don’t want to bother, to be seen, to confront each other. People passed by as he stood there, unable to move, stuck between stores, between destinations. So I got up, offered my hand and assisted him down the stairs. It was not a big thing for me, I do it all the time, random acts of kindness. But something with this experience stayed with me, maybe because I ended up missing my bus and had to wait for another hour for the next one. Or maybe because he gave me his pocket watch, so I wouldn’t miss another bus ever again. He stayed with me for the hour as he chared his stories, random climbses of the long road he had traveled. What a wild ride it had been, life he had lived. Those are a stories for another time, another wait. Anyway as the bus came and we said our good byes he gave me the watch and said that someday it might help me to move on as I had helped him.

Now it’s five years later, I have lost my job, my income do the pandemic that has taken over the world. Everything has changed, world has become this unknown, scary place where things can change any minute.

One day, as I was going through my things, sorting out stuff for the fleemarket to get some money, I came across the watch. Beautiful, old, shiny thing that was still going, even though the world had stopped around it. As I studied the watch I started wondering maybe it’s worth something. Without thinking it too much I took it to the panoffice, first time ever visited the place, never thought I would need to. Sales person looked the watched, studied it carefully, weighted it and wrote something on the paper. As he offered me the paper I couldn’t believe my eyes, watch was worth much more than the small act I did, so many years ago. As I cashed it, I couldn’t help but wonder, that the old man was right, one day the watched helped me to move on as I had helped it.

I remember 5 years ago, I stood up for a friend’s friend. He was being physically bullied, tormented and didn’t want to fight back. I stood up for him by telling the bully: “ Hey stop that, we don’t appreciate that here.” But it was probably my deep tone that threw him off more . Later that day That friend of a friend wanted to hang out again, but the middle man connection between us... this person became more introverted and harder to reach. He was no longer in my high school. And I began my high school. I didn’t see him much but we lost contact over time more and more often. and then it basically stopped. I also never learnt the name of the boy who I defended at the time because it was near the end of the trip, and at the time I was a socially awkward introvert.

A couple years later when I became a successful novelist and was holding my first press conference in order to try to raise my fame and increase sales. I tried to calm down the crowd and ask to do things in an orderly way. They wouldn’t listen. All but one man. This man whipped out a megaphone from his backpack and shouted through it, “ Yo guys give the man some respect.” I thought to myself, “no that couldn’t be him...” “Hey man, remember me? I’m an interviewer now , working for Channel 1 news. As soon as I saw your headline, I remembered you . What do you say old pal, old buddy of mine, can I grab your ‘scoop’ first, privately sometime? “ “Sure man, let’s set up a time”

It was a dense morning and the air felt full. As I strapped on my apron and clicked my keys, the car alarm began blaring. I knew the day would be heavy as well. I drove to get a coffee and as I approached the drive-through window I saw a body through the passenger door, waving and flailing in ways that did not fail to grab my attention. I rolled down the window and a man approached, scuffing his feet along the pavement with his finger pointed, indicating that he had a story to tell me. His eye glasses sat at the edge of his nose, tucked between white hair and his ears. I assume I looked puzzled based on his initial statement of, “Please don’t think I’m crazy, but I know your face and I have to tell you something that I’ve been waiting to share,” and what he proceeded with was something quite hopeful.

The man’s name was Red. He looked familiar, but that might have been solely due to the fact that he acted like I was supposed to know him. He looked like he was in his later 60s, and I knew he was a war veteran because of his bumper sticker that hung out in the back drop of his flailing. This drive-through fiasco had not been our first meeting, but our third. 5 short years ago I had two instances with this man; two instances that I had not given a second thought to.

He was walking his dog, a kind beagle named Winnie, when we encountered each other for the first time. I was driving home from work and had just pulled into my apartment complex. Winnie had run into the parking lot and he was trying to catch her. I stopped my car and helped Red capture the pup and bring her to safety, and that was that. We shared a friendly laugh, a cordial handshake, and we went our ways.

Encounter number two happened on a Wednesday around noon. I had served Red a bowl of potato chowder that looked and smelled like it was especially made for the elderly. We chatted about our days and the small talk was nice, so I let him have his small meal for free that day, and that was that.

Today Red told me that 5 short years ago his wife had died. He told me that Winnie was her pride and joy and potato chowder was her favorite lunch. He said she was kind for now reason, “like me.” Catching his breath from his chaotic waving, he told me that he had been heartsick over the fact that he never got to thank me. Red wanted to thank me for keeping his wife around him. Even though it was only in the form of their curious dog and some lousy, thick, soup, Red was thankful for those acts of kindness. 5 short years later, he remembered my face and thanked me.

One day I was getting onto a an elevator. Standing proud in front was a beautiful woman with so much confidence. I told her how pretty I thought her dress was. She smiled and thanked me.

Since we worked in the same office building we would run into each other sometimes. She was always immaculate. We smiled and talked to each other going up or down.

Then I stopped seeing her. I was sad and thought about her. I knew she was doing great somewhere.

The job I was working at was one I had longed to escape. Finally, I saw my opportunity and ran.

I applied for a job in the same area of Beverly Hills but not the same building.

When I walked in for my interview, there was my lovely elevator friend! She couldn’t believe it was me! He father owned the company I was interviewing for and she would be my trainer.

Her father interviewed and asked for everything but the kitchen sink. I did have law experience. I had worked in an accounting firm experience. I was good with software and knew Quickbooks.

The next day I got the job thanks to my interview skills and my friend in high places. I took over her job after she was done training me. She went on to be a successful novelist. She dedicated her first novel to me for giving her the time she needed to write.

Feeling like an ugly duckling was never a good feeling. Being picked on was also a non-good feeling. Being a teenager can be hard, starting to care about what people say makes it even harder , and being insecure also brings its baggage. I’ve always felt that there was someone who looked better than me and was actually better than me from middle up until high school. In middle school comes bullies and with bullies there are victims and bystanders, I was once the victim but now in high school I was the bystander. I never let anyone get bullied because I knew what it felt like, I would always stick up for someone no matter how big the bully was. I made people feel great about themselves even if I did not receive it in return. Being this way I believe that I started to listen to my own advice and gained more confidence than before.

Old rotted wood still keeps you sheltered from the storm. The storms of our lives crash over us like furious waves off the cape. Pain is relentless and never ending. The siding of our homes have been beaten and weathered by our storms. If buildings could talk they would speak only of the protection they made, the safety they created, and the warmth within.

I was always that quiet kid in class who liked to help people in trouble. When they are hurt I would help them. When kids on the playground had a fight with each other I would help them solve the problem. I would and will help the people who needed support and a shoulder to cry on. I am that that person who would everyone to Oder to be happy, even how bad that person was for me I would help them. I will not regret the numbers of times that I helped people who got trouble. I did not regret to people who hated me. I will not regret of that numbers of time that I actually helped people with their struggle and I love to see their smiles coming back on their faces. I love helping people and you should do that too.