Lost, Late, and Lucky

         I was walking out of the front door into the strong September wind on the flat streets of Greenwich Village. My shoes crunched the dead leaves as I walked. My keys were jingled as I walked past several bald trees. I wonder if I should use a new way of getting to school today. The new way involved walking a block west from 7th avenue to take the “L train,” a train I’ve never used before. I trotted out into the cold happily, and never would suspected that I would end up late, lost, and shivery in the middle of a construction site. I would learn several important lesson from my journey and realize something very important. I continued walking.



         I usually would have taken the M14D bus to avenue D and 3rd street, a boring, lengthy route that I usually loathed. I walked on to a broad and busy street. 7th avenue. As I turned to walk to the train station, a frightening thought came to me. What if I couldn’t find the train. As it turned out, I was completely wrong; the station was as easy to find as a McDonnell’s in New York. I descended into the concrete belly of the train station unlike the one at Chambers that I used to get here. It was a free transfer from those two stations. I walked deeper until I reached the platforms. I waited, and waited, and waited but the train wouldn’t come. That was the first lesson I learned, always have a back-up plan if things didn’t work the way they were supposed to. Finally the train came.



          I raced on to the metal floor of the worm-like train. The trip was an eighth as long as I have waited. I took a look at my watch. 9:36, oh shoot. I raced up the stairs, anxious and jumpy, in search of the M14D bus stop. The train only covered an area from 8th to 1st avenue so I had to use the bus. After I settled down, I examined the street. I was walking in a small street with old buildings and graffiti everywhere my eye could see. Nothing was on this street but crushed cans, shattered shingles, and bent bus signs. The place reminded me of a ghost town. The signs were completely unreadable. It was a matter of guessing which one was for the M14D bus. Then a metallic blue bull with flashing lights pulled up to me. I stepped onto on the bus even though it did not have a sign. That was the second lesson I learned: never use an unmarked transportation device. (Later, I learned that the bus was the M14A bus.) The bus pulled up to a run-down area that looked worse than 1st avenue.



         I knew my school was around here somewhere. I stepped off the shiny pad of the bus. Instead of the leaves crunching beneath my feet, garbage and gravel was. For the first time in my journey I finally did something right. I asked for directions from a construction worker on his lunch break. “Your at avenue D and-” Beep! Beep! Beep! A truck was backing up in front of me causing me to miss the important instructions. Having no reference to help me find my school, I ran off in some strange direction which seemed right. I, luckily, ended up at the shiny doors of my school’s entrance. I looked at clock on the corridors leading up to the stairs. 10:94, Mom’s going to kill me. That was the third lesson I learned: always keep track of time no matter what the situation is. I climbed the stairs to social studies.



         “You’re late!” Joe, the teacher, said. Embarrassed and panting, I sat down in the white classroom. “The purpose of social studies is to learn form the people of the past’s mistakes so we don’t make the same ones again.” Joe announced to the class. I thought about the mistakes I learned from today. I also learned an unforgettable lesson. Think things through before you do them!