After September 11, 2001 many people believed that something needed to change. Is something so big needed in order for people to realize they have to change? Confucius had once said, “Only the wisest and the stupidest of men never change.” It is a natural part of the world that we must change in order to survive. People change because someone told them it was needed, or they changed because they got older and thought that was what was supposed to happen. A small event can change a man just as easily. Three smiles are all it took to truly change my life. My salvation, my destruction, and my redemption were all the result of three smiles.

The night of August 23, 1996 was the night I was saved. For on that night was the first time I saw a smile that change my every being. For up until this point I had been alone and often depressed. She was the most beautiful things I had ever seen. Her grace was only rivaled by the gods. I had to meet her, for my curiosity had led to no other option. I gathered all my strength and walked over with a smile and said hello. She smiled back and we began to converse for hours. The night seemed like that of a fairy tale. I waited for the clock to strike midnight and her to run off, but she did not. In the years following we did many things together. One day again I got the courage and I asked, “Will you marry me?” “Yes,” she replied. My past was now lost before I met her, and I was no longer depressed or alone.

My destruction would be the result of an unforeseeable situation. Many years had past since we were married and life was still like a fairy tale. The phrase haunts my mind now, “All good things must come to an end.” On the night of May 26, 1999 my wife was in a car accident while carrying our unborn daughter. An elderly man fell asleep at the wheel and cross over to her side of the road. She tried to avoid the man but was unable to react in time. He crashed into the front and completely decimated the car. She was rushed to the hospital and they preformed emergency surgery to save our child. My life had not truly had a purpose before I met her, and now I was beginning to be all alone again. They were successful in saving our child, but my wife had suffered too much internal bleeding. I was given the chance to say goodbye, and with tears in my eyes I entered her room. She asked if our baby was okay, and I told her that she was fine. She then gathered the last of her energy and smiled. I was shocked by this expression. Before, she past away she told me she loved me. I was now alone to raise our daughter and I was lost. Once again I was struck by depression and loneliness.

My redemption would come to me in the years. Our daughter was now four and she became curious about her mother. Using what tact I had I told her the story of how we met and how she was no longer with us. Most importantly I told her about how her smile was there throughout my happiness. She looked at me and I noticed something for the first time. She has the same smile. Already in shock she told me, “Its okay daddy, mommy still smiles for you.” Tears poured like the Niagara Falls, and I hugged her tight. All these years I thought I was alone I now realized that she was with me. I no longer felt any grief, and I no longer felt depressed. I felt redeemed by my daughter’s words.

Looking back on everything now I realized how I changed. I did not change because of one major event, but from three small ones. On the grand scale of things, I know my story does not begin to compare to the lives that were lost at a major event. I am just a simple man that changed for a simple reason. I learned that I was not alone and I did not have to live in darkness. Smiles have lit the path that I walk in life. My wife and my daughter were the lampposts on my path. In the end, I was saved from darkness by the first smile, I was destroyed by the second, but I was redeemed by the third.