After youth church service was done, nighttime has come. By then, it was probably 7:00 P.M. Seeing all the people go in cars and ride away with their bikes, my older brother and 2 cousins wanted to walk home instead. Here in Kalihi? A prison, housings, random shops surround us, and of course the different variety of people we don’t know about. Even though I was 13, I was scared out of my mind. I never know how Kalihi would be dangerous. I agreed to them because I thought to myself they would protect me. Letting my mom know was the right thing to do, but they told me to not worry.
I was still nervous knowing that this was my first time walking at night here in my own neighborhood. Although, we decided to walk, they wanted to stay longer. Seeing my brother talk to people, two cousins playing ball with the hoop they had, I felt we weren’t going to walk home but instead get picked up. I told them let’s go, looking at my phone it was 9 P.M.. My phone filled with missed calls by my mom. My brother texted back, lying, and saying we were getting dropped off by friends. I just wanted to go home already.
As I was going to text my mom what happened, he said finally said all their good byes and we started walking away from church properties. During our walk in Kalihi, hardly any other people were walking at this time. My heart started to beat fast in this dark environment, all of our phones were dead. We had to finish the walk without getting picked up. I have seen couple of people laying down on the floor, people who didn’t look normal, and people doing their own typical things that I see during the day. I knew these people were unfortunate; their lives were harsh, nothing that I could compare to them.
We tried walking the safest direction, but everywhere was still the same. My cousin said to me to not walk close to him. He was also questioning to me about the clothes that i am wearing. Thinking in mind why red is bad. We got closer to the street where I live. My brother told me lets cross through KPT. I didn’t event know that place was even dangerous or safe. But I knew not to agree. We continued to walk and I still questioned why red is so bad since I was wearing red shoes and a slipper. One of my cousin told me to walk all bad, jokingly I did. A man across the street suddenly yelled at us saying “you one blood yea, HI!" You think your bad? Come here!” I questioned myself what’s a blood. The man in light blue continued to say these things and started to walk faster towards us. The first person to run was my brother. After that we all started running. I turned around, 2 other guys were with that horrid man, staring and sticking the unnecessary finger at us.
We ran home as fast as we could. Everything on my mind was “what just happened” Realizing what these people are and what they go through, I don’t want my lifestyle to end up like that. I told my mom the story and the first thing she told me…”Get out of Kalihi and move to the mainland.” After this incident happened, i looked at life a little differently. Seeing all the people i seen, being near them, having to go through this everyday was caused by the choices they made. It was also cause by choices they should not have done. I reflected back at the huge problems that I caused. If I continue to be a person that just don't care, all these problems stack up and affect, my future. Now, I am more aware of what I do and my surroundings. I try do what is best for me, and being on guard in whenever situations are about to happen.
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