I’ve never really noticed anything around my development. Even having lived here for 12 years, my attention has never been on it. However, one afternoon, when I was walking to my house from where the school bus dropped me off, my headphones broke, which sucked because music always helped me de-stress. I don’t know what happened, they just started to cut off at certain times and trying to hear the music meant that I had to literally move my headphone wire around like a radio signal to try to hear it. Every day I always listen to music walking back, I love music and every time my headphones break it always pisses me off. So for the first time in 12 years, I tried to take notice of my development. It was fall and the trees were all different colors of leaves, it was moderate outside, and it was just all fall-like. But as I was walking and enjoying the fall, I noticed a man. The reason that this man caught my eye is because he was very peculiar to me, he was wearing a suit and just sitting on his stoop, and that’s all he was doing from what I saw. When I got to my house, I ate a snack, did my homework, watched some TV, and went to bed, not paying any mind to the man in the suit on his stoop. The next day, walking back this time the headphones were my fault, in the morning I was rushing as fast as the speed of light trying to get to school on time and replacing my headphones with another pair just slipped out of my mind. So I was again stuck with looking around as my only sense of entertainment, walking back home. There he was again! The man on his stoop was again just sitting in a full suit with glasses, not holding a briefcase for maybe some important meeting, not rushing off somewhere to get to work and again I noticed him. When I got home this person was sitting on my mind, I just thought it was weird, sitting in a suit and doing nothing. At dinner I asked my parents about the man. I have lived here for twelve years with them and they were super friendly, so I assumed that they might know at least something about this man. They told me that the man’s name was Mr. Ford and that he retired last year, before my follow up question about the stoop came to my lips they had already read my mind and said they didn’t know why he just sat on his stoop either. A couple of weeks later, I was on a break, I had off for two weeks, and like I am pretty sure as most kids at my school, I was excited about it. On one of my break days I was walking around my development in my snow boots because it was very cold and there was snow all over the ground. As I was walking around I went by the old man and his stoop, again he was just sitting on his stoop but he wasn’t an idiot because he had a winter jacket on and was sitting on a chair on his stoop. I decided to get this mystery out of my mind and went to talk to the old man.

“Hi Sir,” I said. He turned his head to look at me and smiled he then said in reply,

“Hello, lovely weather we’re having isn’t it?”

“yes.” replied me nicely, “I was just wondering sir, I have noticed you a couple of times and I was just wondering, why do you sit on your stoop in a full suit every day?” The old man laughed and said,

“Oh! (laughs) Well I think other people have wondered the same thing too (laughs) but you’re the first one to ask me so good for you!”

I laughed.

“Well, I retired last year and my job was always stressful for me. I stayed up late a lot of nights working on stuff, I worked all the time and even on weekends! I was just so stressed all the time during my job. But when I retired it felt kind of weird, I mean that stress obviously was not going to happen anymore but I still just felt weird. So one day I decided to go out for a drink with some friends. But when I was about to leave I saw this kid walking home from school, they were obviously stressed and I got flashbacks to me being stressed with my job, and so I just sat down on my stoop and took a breath, and enjoyed the fresh air. I did that for myself and for that kid. I thought that maybe if they saw somebody in a suit and looking all professional just sitting on their stoop and trying to de-stress, they would feel better, like that feeling you get when you notice somebody going through the same thing as you. I didn’t really feel that stressed when I had those flashbacks but sitting on my stoop just helped me, it made me feel better, and more calm.”

“Wow,” I said in a mild shocked and pleasant tone, “that is a really interesting story”

“Well, your the first person who has asked why.” said the old man, “and you know what, your the first person I am going to give this advice too….If you ever feel stressed just try going out onto your stoop, take a look around, and breath in the fresh air, it certainly helps me.”

“Okay” I replied, “have a good day” I said as I walked away.

“You too” said the old man.

As I walked away I thought about what the old man had said, and I thought that that could be useful for me. So a week after the break when I had two tests coming up, I went outside to my stoop, looked around and took a few deep breaths. I felt less stressed.