I’ve been lost countless times when I was little. It mostly happened in Target and lasted only a couple of minutes. This story, however, is different because I was and little older and I was with someone else. As an eight year old in the company of a crying toddler, I was the most scared I had found myself for a long time.

Around six years ago, when I was eight, my family and I were going to a friend’s house in Vancouver, Washington. We had been there a few of times and knew the family well. When we arrived, we ate together and afterwards, decided to walk to a nearby park to hang out. By the time we were going back to their house, it was late and starting to get dark. A four year old, Emerson, and I decided to run back home ahead of the others since we thought we knew the way. Emerson lived in the neighborhood and I was under the impression he would know the way back to his house. Unfortunately, he didn’t and neither did I. As we were running back, we missed the right turn into the pathway leading to their house. It was long and curved, so it was hard to see the house. After running for a while, we realized we didn’t know where we were, so we kept walking and got ourselves even more lost. Normally when I’m lost I can eventually find one of my parents, but since this was an unfamiliar neighborhood, it was a lot harder and I had to resort to Plan B. Anyways, every once and awhile the little kid would say he remembered (or thought he remembered) where that certain turn was, but it was never right and I got even more discouraged. Because it was dark and twenty minutes had already passed, I started to panic and resorted to walking every possible route in the complicated neighborhood. I started to think we’d never be found and Emerson and I would be stranded forever in Vancouver, Washington. So I started to pray. I decided to knock on someone’s door and ask to borrow a phone to pick us up at the park we were previously at even though we didn’t know where that was either. Unfortunately, I hated doing things like talking to strangers; so, I was very hesitant. Then I remembered I was lost and how I hated being lost, especially if I thought that meant I would be lost forever. So after debating this, I finally walked up to someone’s door and asked to borrow a phone. The residents of the house were a young guy with an older lady in the back - probably his mom. He handed me his flip phone with a dolphin background and I called my mom. After calling her, we tried to find our way back to the park which was somewhat difficult because we were lost and Emerson had started to whine really loud. Finally, as we were walking up the hill, we saw the bright lights of a car and were picked up by my parents. 

From this experience, I learned that sometimes you have to do things that are out of your comfort zone. Also, none of that would have happened if I had stayed with the others since I didn’t know the way home. Ultimately, I learned my lesson and have avoided getting lost like that since then.