I was recently notified that I’m receiving a Bravery Medal from the Australian Governor-General for something I did a while back. The list of recipients is on this page (direct link to PDF).
Today, I was contacted and interviewed by a news reporter from 7 News, Jackie Quist The clip was a lot shorter than the interview. 🙂
They used the 1 part that I was secretly hoping that they wouldn’t. But, oh well.
Jackie asked me a question, which put me right back at that moment where I’d asked myself if I was going to stand by and watch this fellow burn to death. I tried to answer, but I broke down.
The thing is, a few years prior, I’d tried to help a friend, and I really, really tried. But I didn’t try hard enough, and he died. He was one of my closest friends. His death hit me hard. And standing in front of that burning car with that fellow screaming for help… I’d already miserably failed one of my closest friends, and I couldn’t fail like that again. Thinking about and talking about that moment, standing there in front of the flames, brings back all the pain of losing someone who was very dear to me. For some reason, those two memories and events are tied together for me.
