_Person 1: C-Level Executive _
“Saving a stranger’s life”
It was the summer when I was 15 years old.
My family and relatives went for a raft and lodge vacation in Kanchanaburi.
We practically lived and traveled on the big raft during those three days.
When the raft had stopped for sightseeing in the river Kwai, we had soe free time to swim and relax.
Young children and their fathers went swimming in the river, while mothers stayed on the raft preparing snacks while chit-chatting among themselves.
I was swimming further from others when I heard high-pitched screams and shouts coming from the raft. I turned to see my mother and her friends frantically pointing to the middle of the river. I saw a hand sticking out of the deep water, it gave me a rush that a person was drowning. Within 50 meters, there was no one nearby, let alone an adult. A glance back at my mother, I could figure out her worrying gesture was both for my safety and the life of that person. I swam towards the person with my father’s advice in my head. Before I was born, my father had a cramp while swimming in the middle of the sea. Luckily, his friend noticed my father’s distress and came to the rescue. Thus, my father made sure all his sons 1.know how to swim and 2. know how to rescue a drowning person without endangering oneself.
Getting closer I gathered the person was a boy around a few years older than me. I approached the boy from behind and got his head above water by pulling his t-shirt collar. I kept on treading water and dragging the boy closer to land. At last, the grown-ups arrived and took over. They got him on the ground for CPR. Apparently, he was one of the tourists from another raft. Nothing else for me to do. I got myself back to the raft to hear my mother recounting her fear of the incident. Not long after, our raft moved out of the scene and continued our journey.
Once in a blue moon, I would think of how the drowning boy is doing now. What he has become of. What kind of life he has lived. I knew only that the boy survived. Nothing more.
_Person 2: Teacher _
“Strangers who brightened each other’s night”
My story starts with hunger but ends with my stomach full and my heart fulfilled. It was a cold, gray evening in Christchurch, New Zealand. After a long day of rafting, my friend and I were starving, so we dragged ourselves out of the hotel room to grab something to eat. Although it was spitting, downtown Christchurch was busy with tourists and travelers on Friday. And there we were in our old sweatpants, looking for a quick meal before we call it a night. In the middle of the street, I spotted an elderly couple, probably tourists, struggling to figure out the city map. I stopped and watched them from across the street as I thought many passersby might help them. After 5 minutes of no one noticing, we decided to see if they needed any help. Their faces brightened up, and they told us they couldn’t find the way to the restaurant. The rain was pouring down harder, so we offered to walk them to said restaurant. They were reluctant at first, but we insisted that we had nothing to do anyway. We walked them there and said goodbye out front, but they insisted that we joined them for dinner, so with empty stomachs we did. We later found out that the gentleman owns the famous “ChapStick” brand of lip balm and has a child foundation in Thailand that has been saving a good number of disadvantaged Thai children. He joked with us that his good deeds had sent the two Thai ladies to save him and his wife today. We all had a fantastic night full of laughter, and I went to bed with a smile, a full stomach and a grateful heart.
_Person 3: Janitor _
“Loving an unexpected stranger”
“If it weren’t for the kids in the halls I would not enjoy or have my job at Newton” said Mrs. Nueng, our very sweet janitor. So I asked her for a story of a stranger she could never forget.
“
It was a usual day, but for me it was one of the best days of my life. I had just been hired as Newton's janitor. Traveling from the suburbs of Thailand was no easy task to adjust to the chaotic city of Bangkok, not to mention Siam, the heart of the city itself. As I arrived two hours earlier to clean the entire school for the students, a few were already there to open the gates for me. There was this girl, sitting alone patiently waiting for someone or something. As soon as she saw me, she smiled and greeted me. It was the first time in a long while that a teenager looked directly in my eye and acknowledged the presence of a janitor. I felt this rush of warmth and happiness I could never inexplicably explain. She asked me if there was anything that she could do to help me, and so did I even love this girl more. All I could answer was that the best thing she could do for me was to focus and study hard. She smiled and promised she would do as I asked. A while later, I started seeing kids, of many ages, personalities, and styles rushing in; they brightened and colored the campus. That moment I knew I wasn’t only a janitor, but also a part of a community that was creating a change for the better.
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