We picked up a young fella just walking the interstate deep in the mountains. From the Texas coast, he spent all he had on a tiny motorized scooter board and escaped his home town to see America. A thousand miles north, in seemingly foreign land, he ran out of gas again.
He hid his only possession on a back road in the forest and started walking to find a gas station. A real life "Forest Gump" character, he advised me to never work for family. He had worked for years for his uncle on the family shrimp boat for nothing, "and never got nothin' in the end either!" But he had a heart of gold, polite as could be, self reliant, and the only thing he asked was, "Where is the closest gas station?"
We filled up his little water bottle (gas can). He wouldn't take but a few cans of food, "'cause I ain't got but a little scooter" he said. But after insisting, he took a little cash. He was about to set off walking again but I insisted on driving him back to his scooter. We drove for miles and back tracked on a couple roads, since he'd forgotten which valley and forest he'd hidden his scooter in. Eventually, he remembered the spot. He let me test drive his scooter board before he drove off with his little food bag on the handle bars.
I left having felt that I made a difference in someone's life. But my ego gained a lesson in humility this young man showed: the real gold in life is what's in your heart, not in what you drive.
He hid his only possession on a back road in the forest and started walking to find a gas station. A real life "Forest Gump" character, he advised me to never work for family. He had worked for years for his uncle on the family shrimp boat for nothing, "and never got nothin' in the end either!" But he had a heart of gold, polite as could be, self reliant, and the only thing he asked was, "Where is the closest gas station?"
We filled up his little water bottle (gas can). He wouldn't take but a few cans of food, "'cause I ain't got but a little scooter" he said. But after insisting, he took a little cash. He was about to set off walking again but I insisted on driving him back to his scooter. We drove for miles and back tracked on a couple roads, since he'd forgotten which valley and forest he'd hidden his scooter in. Eventually, he remembered the spot. He let me test drive his scooter board before he drove off with his little food bag on the handle bars.
I left having felt that I made a difference in someone's life. But my ego gained a lesson in humility this young man showed: the real gold in life is what's in your heart, not in what you drive.
1912 Reads
- Posted by rickhiker
- Mar 21, 2018
- Comments (3)
Readers Comments
mish wrote: The "road less taken" often offers up these wondrous meets. Thank you for helping open-heartedly.
mindyjourney wrote: Thank you for helping as he needed --- truly a lesson in what truly matters!
leoladyc728 wrote: thanks for helping him
