The Day I Saved Someone from Jumping off a Mountain

Nothing much to say for this post today.

If someone were to ask you “What is one monumental moment that shaped you into the person you are today?”. What would you say?

When I lived in Las Vegas, NV there was this one day in particular that stands out. It was a horrible day. And when I say horrible, I mean, the absolute worst. You cant find your keys because sleepy you decided to keep them in your jacket pocket instead of on the key ring where they go 99% of the time, then you finally get to school, go through your classes like any normal day, find out you flunked a test you thought you did well on, then can’t get into your car because you locked your keys in your car, when you finally get your keys out of your car you start heading home and get stopped at. Every. Single. Traffic. Light. You get home and your dog who never chews anything up decides to chew up your favorite pair of slippers, as you make your way up to your room you trip up the stairs.... okay I could go on and on and on forever about bad days. So this one in particular was just rough. One of those days where all the little things add up and ruin your day. It’s okay. We all have bad days.

So I decided that I wasn’t going to let all of this get me down and I went for a run to Lone Mountain in Las Vegas. Surprisingly, there weren’t many people there on this day. There was a man already standing at the top when I got up there. At hindsight he didn’t look too well. I couldn’t tell if he was dehydrated or what. Just something was off. I used to always carry this red REI backpack with me so I had extra waters with me.

“Would you like some water?” I asked as he becomes startled.

“Oh, wow yes I would thank you.”

“Yeah not a problem, isn’t it beautiful up here? This is one of my favorite places to come and get away for a little while. Do you come up here often?”

“I used to come here with my dad at least once a month. He passed away 2 years ago and I still come up here to be with him.”

“Oh I love that so much! What an awesome idea.”

And we left the conversation at that. A few minutes pass and I walked the top of the mountain a bit more and came back to where he was still sitting. As I passed by I said “It was great meeting you! Have a great rest of your day!” “You too.” He said. Something felt off so I asked “Hey are you okay” then he broke down into tears. “I’m so sorry but you came up here to breathe I don’t want to burden you, but I came up here to kill myself today and our short conversation is making me rethink it.” “Oh my goodness I am so sorry. Do you want to walk down with me?” I asked and he nodded.

As we made our way down the hill I found out a lot about him and that we had a few things in common. We exchanged stories and continued walking around the mountain for a good hour. I walked him to the parking lot and made sure he was safe. I’m not sure where he’s at now, or what he’s doing, or even what he did after I left him. But there was something that switched inside of him from the moment I first met him to the second I turned my back and walked away from him for good. It was a good feeling. A very good feeling. I may not have changed his world view on anything or was able to pay his rent or who knows what, but I was able to be that listening ear that he needed at that very moment.

Now, I always feel the need to be there for other people, ask them ”What’s up?” Or “How are you?” “Want to go grab coffee” and just get to know people. Just the crappy part is that I’m realizing that not everybody wants that, or a deeper connection. It just frustrating to me because I am one that wants to save the world. If I had unlimited money, passed, tickets, travel, most people I think would spend it on themselves but oh no no no I wouldn’t do that at all. I’d make it a goal to end poverty, listen to every country and every city about what they think is best for their home and what needs changing. Children shouldn’t be starving, children shouldn’t be abused in foster homes, I just wish I could make this world a safe, beautiful, and happy place. I know I can’t do that on my own, and its a very ’dream world reality’ for me, but that’s why I always share a smile, ask if someone’s okay, share advice that may not be wanted, spend time with people, learn about people, take an extra 5 mins to talk to someone. I don’t know. I want to save the world. Anyone else feel me on that?

Goodnight,

Faith