Ben

I've never considered myself a bad person - I've done bad things; but that by all means doesn't make me a bad person. When it comes to it, I've always prided myself on wanting to do the best for those close to me. Be there when they need me, give them whatever advice I can and at least try and get them back on their way.

I guess I don't like seeing people close to me give up on themselves - or assume negativity about themselves. It sometimes shocks me that even I can't see the light myself, I'll shine whatever I can onto their life and see what's good about them. (When it comes to taking advice, I can be a stubborn little bastard).

Which brings me to Ben.

Some backstory:

On the lonely Sunday night of September 29th - my £12 Megabus left Cardiff at 9pm and was due to arrive in Coventry at 12:55am. I filled my time watching episodes of Community and Doctor Who on my phone and giving 'Yeezus' another listen. The journey didn't bother me, I knew where I was going, where I had come from and why I was taking this journey.

About 30 minutes towards the end of the journey; I realised I had to save battery to grab a taxi number, use Google Maps etc.. So I turned my Nexus off and nodded off. When we arrived; I was amidst a sea of work-re-locators, international students & travelers, but no taxi's.

"Which way to the city centre?" I overheard a voice to the driver. He sounded nice enough; so I asked him if he's going to the city centre we should split a taxi, because the walk was over an hour and a half, only seemed fair. I could sense a bit of tremble and fear in his voice - so during the taxi-calling smalltalk, I asked him where he was from

"A very, very far away place" He slowly muttered.

My curiosity raised my concerns, he continued to explain that he lived in Cardiff and had caught the Megabus from Bristol to Cardiff and fell asleep for that long that the route went back to Coventry. Yeah, he literally had only woken up in Coventry. I looked at him in sheer disbelief and let out a polite laugh. It wasn't long before my instincts to help this guy kicked in, he seemed like a good guy in an awful situation, . I knew it was what I needed when it happened to me.

This guy had little money, two dead phones, no phone chargers, no contact numbers and was 130 miles away from home at 1am on a Monday morning.

We hopped in our taxi and I managed to make him laugh, as did he to me; I could see in his eyes he was terrified, but his laughter made me realise he was like me - trying to bring light to the insane scenario. His original plan was to get a train back, hoping for a 1:30am line - but once we arrived there; the next train wasn't until 5am. So we took to the streets. I walked him to McDonalds, he bought me a McDonalds out of thanks, though I insisted he didn't need to. I looked up Travelodge prices, locations, train times, coach times, all prices etc, gave him my spare phone charger - even walked him to the Travelodge at 2am to make sure he was okay.

I did like the guy, we sat down and discussed music, clubs, scenes, history in depth and bonded I guess. I don't think I'd have helped him this much if I didn't have a good feeling about Ben. When we said goodbye, we shared a hug and he said "I'll see you soon"

We didn't exchange numbers or Facebook names, nothing. I just find it crazy that, I sat and shared a big night with this guy and I'll probably never meet him again, it kind of makes it nice for me.

My head isn't in the best position now - with University I feel like I'm lost and am somewhere I shouldn't be - I guess these events conjured a metaphorical balance to my head. While I've spoken to numerous amounts of family, friends, colleagues and classmates about it - I still feel like I'm on this stranded boat.

I guess this entire scenario of Sunday night has grounded a metaphorical balance in my head - that no matter how lost you are; there'll always be people around you to bring you back up to surface.

For that, I am eternally grateful.