Your Heart Is Running Perfectly

(It’s my senior year in high school and I have finally saved up the money to go out for sports. I choose track and field since I love running. We are at a meet at a neighboring school, and I’m running the 400-meter relay. I turn a corner and see a girl from our rival school lying in the ditch. I immediately stop and help her. I get her mostly conscious and we start walking slowly across the field to her team. My classmates start booing and jeering loudly. I can see my coach shaking her head. I finally get the girl back to her team, and they get her to a doctor. I go to sit with my team, where they proceed to berate me for the rest of the meet. My coach refuses to speak to me, but sends her favorite student to tell me how upset and disappointed in me she is that I “threw the race.” I am sitting on the bleachers, crying silently, when two students from the other team approach me.)

Student #1: “Hey, we just wanted to say thanks for helping our friend.”

Student #2: “Yeah, that was so awesome.”

(They quickly left, but their kindness has stayed with me for decades. I’m now 43, and I will never forget it.)