I love my dad because of the many things that he has that I don’t. He is courageous and never backs down on helping people. He also knows what’s right or wrong in a situation Immediately. But most of all he never gets really mad.

There was this one time when my dad and I went home and we found a Gatorade bottle in our front yard with all the liquid that came out too. My dad and I checked the cameras and it was a guy just throwing a fully opened Gatorade bottle at our front yard.

My dad was so surprised because of how unreal it was when it happened. You don’t expect someone to just throw a whole sweet, delicious, refreshing Gatorade at some random person’s house. However, my dad wasn’t even mad about it because he was just so shocked and was laughing too. 

I was like, “So… What are we gonna do?”

My dad, “ I don’t know but we need to find out what his face looks like!”

So my dad and I zoomed all the way in and were trying to figure out what his face looked like. The guy had a little beard going around his face and also a hat that was slicked back and the brim wasn’t showing in the front. 

“Do you know who he is?”, I said. 

My dad laughed, “That’s one of the house owners in the back of our house.”

I was like what??? There is no way that that man was just strolling and felt like throwing a whole Gatorade bottle on some random person’s front yard. 

We didn’t do anything. After all, I guess my dad didn’t want to get in conflict because my dad is a pretty peaceful guy. Always happy and never tries to argue. That’s what I like about my dad. 

It’s just a normal school day, but it’s a special day for me. My Birthday. It kinda sucks how birthdays are on weekdays that are on school days. My birthday is also just always on weekdays too so that’ll never happen. I’m pretty sure everyone wants to have a weekend birthday too so that they can wake up in bed and think about their birthday only and not think about school or work. Either way, it was just a normal school day, but it’s just my birthday. I usually do my 1st and 2nd-period classes and then break. I walked to my friends whom I saw exchanging money to give to one of my friends. I question why they were giving money to them and they all say for food. I take their word for it and then just carry on with Break.

I get through periods 3 and 4 and then lunch comes around. I get my usual lunch and walk back to my friends. We’re talking while eating and just having something to do during these boring hours of school.

“Hey Joseph, can you sit on the bench and close your eyes?” My friends said.

“Okay?” I said willingly because I knew they were trying to do something to me that relates to something funny. If there is something funny or something to laugh at I’ll go for it. As I sit down I just hear them make fun of me. I know they are joking so it doesn’t matter at all. So I just go with it and laugh with them until I hear one of my friends say, “ You got these raggedy homeless shoes from the swap meet!” I know that swap meets have very good deals, but this was the first time ever hearing them make fun of my shoes. They never do that and suddenly start making fun of my shoes? Huh. Weird. As they were still taking it out on me (not literally), I heard my friend approach me, and then, THUD!

I opened my eyes and saw a box, but it was not just a cardboard box, it was a shoebox. 

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOSEPH!!” They all said. 

That’s when I knew that all that made fun of me was just the anticipation for a gift. A wonderful gift. A gift that was so unexpected from all of them. I was shocked until I opened the box. And see the shoes that I’ve wanted for the longest time in front of me. I was so happy to the point where I jumped so high that I thought I was flying. This unexpected birthday surprise was one of the best birthdays I had on a weekday school day. 

My friend, Henry just cleared the 2 Stair with ease as my other friend, Jonas and I just watch in awe how he just did that. Henry did an ollie just to show us what it looks like when doing a skateboard track down something. Jonas being the intrigued beginner starts asking questions on when to ollie because he already had ollie down. So did I. 

“It’s all about timing. You ollie when you see your wheels are about to go over the edge of the first step.” henry said.
“Wait it’s that easy?” Said Jonas. Jonas then started to go up the stairs, get ready and prepped up to attempt his ollie down the stairs. He drops his board and then pushes himself forward. He then bends down and then suddenly stops. Jonas looks at us with the eyes of someone who is scared to attempt it. Henry, being the good friend he is tells him to stop being scared and just clear it. Jonas snaps out of it and goes back and does the same thing and ollies. Now Jonas is on the floor from falling off the skateboard. However, that doesn’t stop him. He gets back up and then keeps on doing the same thing. We were there for about 30 minutes at max and then once Jonas dropped his board and then pushed himself forward, he ollied it. Henry and I are so excited that we both jumped up in excitement because this was his first time doing it. 

After all the excitement, Henry then says, “Now it’s your turn, Joseph.” I knew what I had to do. I got on the platform where the stairs were located and then got ready same like Jonas. I roll up to the staircase and attempt the ollie, but kick out. I try again and the same thing happens. I try to think of different ways to do it the ollie and think of a different time to ollie. It never worked because I was still there trying it for about an hour. Jonas and Henry are currently just tired and exhausted from looking at me ollie.

Then it was the 19th try when I actually had an idea. Just risk it all. I noticed as I was rolling up to the edge I was scared of falling. So I told myself, “just risk it all. It doesn’t matter if you fall because you can just get back up and try again.” I pushed myself and the skateboard to the edge and there it was. The ollie down the two stairs. Both my friends look up quickly and saw me roll away from the staircase after the crash between the floor and the wheels of my skateboard. Henry and Jonas were so excited that they also jumped up in excitement. I can’t believe I just ollied off something for the first time.

As my cousin, Katie is ahead of 9 year old me as we bike around the neighborhood, we stop by the park, just to play in the playground and do tricks on the monkey bars. Go down the slides and run around places playing tag with each other. 

“That was fun Katie!”, I said to her with a smile on my face.

“Really! I had a lot of fun playing!” 

She said in reply. We are sitting on the bench tired out because this playground was pretty big. We were also tired from racing on the bicycles around the neighborhood. 

“Do you think we should go home since we were supposed to go back to the house?” I said because I wanted to go eat some ice cream that we had.

“Yeah, I think we should go back just in case your mom doesn’t yell at us.”

We then started riding back to the house for some ice cream. It’s going smoothly and we are passing all these houses and feeling the breeze. Riding fast made the whole world look like it’s being vacuumed behind us. As we are riding on the cement near the gates where people park their cars. There was this one car that was about to reverse out so that they could go to their wherever they were going. Me being ahead of my cousin didn’t see the car because I was looking behind trying to tell her I was gonna beat her. 

“Joseph Watch Out!!” was the last thing I heard before hearing a loud thud and seeing only black. Then it just hit me that I just crashed into a car. I opened my eyes and my foot was actually under the tire of the car. I was on the ground and I didn’t know what to do because I was one, 9 years old, and I was in shock. My cousin comes to me asking if I’m okay and I look up at her and of course say yes because I didn’t know in about ten minutes I would be in so much pain. 

The driver and the passenger get out of the car they were in and come rushing to see if I’m also good. They offered me some water since their house was literally there and when I was drinking I felt my tooth and then figured out that it just cut in half. And then I see blood on my hands as well and then it hit me that was the first time I looked down to find out what happened to me. Then the pain came in and I started crying a lot. After that, I felt better, and then we still got that ice cream and then got a story to tell everyone about at home.

As I walk back from school to find myself being always so unenergetic from the tireless teachers from school. Teaching me something new every day to keep in my little brain. Always looking down at the cement counting all the steps I take to come back. Until the old lady down the neighborhood, sitting on her rocking chair just enjoying life. Her name was Susan. She was about 83 years old and had this blanket over her legs to keep her warm while she was outside. She would call me to approach her so that we could have conversations. 

After that, Susan would tell me she had a gift for me. She went back inside and then came out with a jolly rancher. I would say thank you and go on my way to go back to my house. As I put the jolly rancher inside my mouth, it was like the world was beginning to turn for the better. The flavor of the jolly rancher was like a baseball hitting someone in the head. Surprising. The jolly rancher’s flavor just kept coming back and back every time I swallowed the juices that came out of it. I happily go back to my house to tell my mom about the old lady down the neighborhood. 

Every time I would walk back home from school I would meet Susan to get another jolly rancher from her. My day would get better as if she had some kind of magic to turn my day around. Then one day, I came back from school and then wanted to get a jolly rancher from Susan, but she wasn’t there. I knocked on the door, but no one answered. So I just went back home and then asked my mom if she knew what happened to Susan. My backpack dropped when I heard the news that she was in the emergency room for a stroke. 

After that, I haven’t heard about Susan since the day she had a stroke. I haven’t seen her back on her chair and I haven’t heard her call my name. Now I come home without a jolly rancher.