A Time to Stop
I don’t know why I laughed at my parents’ words. I couldn’t tell you why I dismissed their warnings as irrelevant and laughable. I was five years old at the time, perhaps a bit older, but I can still remember my incredulity.
“Why?” I asked “Why is this such a big deal?”
“Because,” they answered, “one day, it could save your life.” Eleven years later, I thank my mother and father for imparting to me the most important lesson I have learned in my life: stopping at crosswalks.
Growing up in a large neighborhood, I frequently encountered pedestrian crossings. With that childish ignorance, I would run through unabatedly, unless my parents were with me. I didn’t fear cars; I trusted them to always yield to me. The sad fact is, though, that they don’t always yield.
Most people learn their lessons in a painful fashion, but I was fortunate. I was shown the truth in a statistic; in 2009, 4,092 American pedestrians were killed in traffic accidents. Four thousand lives were lost in a grossly unnecessary manner. Such a simple thing as stopping at a crosswalk could have reduced that number of fatalities greatly.
I have decided to not become a statistic. Instead, I will make calculated actions, occasionally taking a risk that may yield a large return (not stopping at a crosswalk does not qualify as such a risk). I believe risk management is one of the most important lessons in this giant crosswalk that we refer to as “Life”.