How I met Forrest Gump? And How he changed my life?

 

It was 1994, August 7, a sunny day at the bus station. I was sitting on a wooden bench, waiting for my bus to arrive. I had nothing to do at that time so I became busy with my own thoughts. I had aimed to be the world's most successful businessperson/entrepreneur. I wanted to build my own business empire and eventually gain freedom and power. I was very shrewd from childhood so people around me had high hopes for me. They always said I would be a great person someday. And from my childhood, I was waiting for that day to come but it still seems out of my reach.

As I was consoling myself for my past mistakes and indulging myself with future fantasies, one white man came to the station. He was lean, wearing a grey suit and carrying a brown suitcase. His looks and gait revealed him to be a very simple man. His appearance was nothing stylish in particular. 

He sat on the same bench beside me maintaining some distance. Then he opened his suitcase and took out a box of chocolate. He ate one and offered it to me as well. I said, "Thank you but I don't like chocolates." He made a surprised face and said," Well I can eat a million and a half of these.” After eating few chocolates he said, “I am Forrest, Forrest Gump but everyone just calls me Forrest." I didn’t feel like giving him a replay.  I just smiled at him. It was my fake smile and I already felt he was being over-friendly to me. 

 

He then took out an old picture of him and said," This was how I looked in my childhood. I was not very good looking. But my mama always said I was very handsome." He took the picture in his hand and stared at it very deeply. Then he said," you know in my childhood, I couldn't even walk.  The doctor said it was due to my crooked back.  So mama made me magic legs. And I started walking again. When people used to look at me oddly, my mama used to tell me that I was like everyone else. And in school, I met Jenny and she was like an angel. We used to be together all the time. We used to be like peas and carrots… ……”

 

My attention snapped from him and I came to my own thought. “Who is this creepy guy? Why is he sharing his life stories with me, which I don’t even care about? Is he suffering from mental illness? Even if he is fine, He surely is stupid.” I was making a face as if I was listening to him but I didn’t give a damn about his words. I was busy pondering my own future. I was giving slight attention to his words but most of the time I was thinking about myself.

 

“.... just by playing football, I graduated out of college. My mama was very happy that day. Then an army sir came and gave me a paper with which I could join the military. That’s where I met Bubba……..”

 

My thought again took over. “This is getting irritating. How can this guy share all this with me? Is he just a retard or does he wants to befriend me? Does he have some other intentions?” No matter how much I tried I couldn’t accept the fact that someone would talk this openly to a stranger they just met. 

 

“..... Jenny’s dream was getting fulfilled. She was having her own stage to sing. When I got there she was looking so beautiful on the stage but for some reason she was half-naked. When some punks started to tease her, I went and beat them all. But Jenny became angry with me……”

 

“Ahh!! My bus is here”. My bus came and I got away from there. Before boarding the bus, I looked at him, but surprisingly he was still looking straightly and talking. He was telling his story so deeply and with so many emotions that he didn’t notice me leaving him. I smirked at his stupidity and went inside the bus. But I couldn’t take off my gaze at him even from inside the bus.

 

Then suddenly I started feeling wrong about my decision. My conscience started revolting my ego. “There was a man who even though was a stranger shared his whole life with me. No one had ever talked so honestly to me. His eyes revealed everything he was saying was from his heart. So I shouldn’t care if he is a retard or something, I should go to him and listen to him.” After some arguments with the demon and angel of my two shoulders, I decided to accompany that guy. The bus had already started, but I made it stop and rushed back to him.

 

“...... Then in Vietnam, I met Lieutenant Dan….” Just as I reached there, he stopped talking and looked at me. 

 

This time I gave him a genuine smile and said,” What did you say your name was?” 

 “It’s Forrest Gump Sir”, he said.

 

“So tell me more about Lieutenant Dan.”I happily said to him. 

 

“Lieutenant Dan was a very good lieutenant. He always told us what to do and what not to do. He has a big responsibility as a Lieutenant because someone from his family had fought and died in every important war……”

 

Then Forrest went on to tell about his experience in Vietnam and I gave my full attention to him. He told me about his moments with Dan, Bubba and other mates. It was hilarious when he described the types of rain in Vietnam. He also shared with me about Bubba’s proposal to open a shrimp business. Then he explains his moment of ambush.

“I ran away quickly listening to Lieutenant Dan’s order that I became all by myself. Realizing I have left Bubba, I went back to save him. But every time I tried to find bubba, some else would call me. After saving few people including the Lieutenant, I was able to find bubba. 

His was wounded so I carried him. While I was carrying him outside, I got shot in the buttocks. But I was able to bring him outside the forest. Then, unfortunately, he died in my arms.”

He said his story so honestly that it felt real even to me. What I couldn’t bear without chuckling was when he showed his wound mark on his buttocks. I felt he was not stupid at all rather he was an amazing storyteller. I started to become fascinated with his stories.

 

Then he described his moments in the hospital and his love for ping pong. I became intrigued when he said that he went to China to compete in ping pong. I was just surprised that this man was making up stories and telling me about his own life. Then he also said his moments when he got the Congressional Medal of Honor. But the greatest shock was when he showed me his own congressional medal of honour. It was a real medal and I couldn’t believe my eyes. For this long, I was thinking he made it all up but I now realized that all his stories of adventure were true. Then I became so fascinated with this person that I wanted to know about him more and more.

“So what did you do after you got out of the military?”

“I first got to go to Washington with my mom to receive the medal. While my mom was resting at the hotel, I went outside to for taking pictures…..”

Then again, he started narrating his awesome stories. He gave a speech on the war of Vietnam where he met Jenny. He said, “That was one of the best moments of my life.” “Jenny was involved in some black people group and she used to travel a lot. So I could only be with her for a small moment. But those few moments were very satisfying. Before she went I gave her my medal……”

 

“Then I also got a chance to be on TV and just after that, I met Lieutenant Dan. He lives alone and was grumpy all the time. We enjoyed the New Year together. That time I shared bubbas plan for shrimping business but Lieutenant Dan couldn’t believe it…..”

 

After that, he again narrated his story of how he met Bubba’s family and bought a boat. He named his boat “Jenny”. Then Dan also joined him in the business. They couldn’t catch any shrimp but a storm changed their fortune. Since only their boat survived the storm, now they became a monopoly on that field. While business was booming, Forrest’s mom got ill, so he left the boat to Dan and went home. His mom was very sick and died soon. Forrest was all by himself again.

 

“Then one day I received Lieutenant Dan’s mail. He had invested the business money in some fruit company. And it grew so much that even I became a billionaire. But my mama always said a man requires only that much amount of money to fulfil his needs, rest is just for showing off. So I gave my money to churches, schools and hospitals. They became so happy with me that they gave me a job to cut grass on the lawn. And I was so good at being a billionaire that I did it for free. I lived by myself in our Alabama home. But one day, I imagined Jenny coming towards me. But it wasn’t my imagination, she was really here.”

Then it was time to listen to Forrest’s happy moments with jenny. They really had fun together. They walked together, talked, danced and even make love. But one day jenny suddenly disappeared and even left the medal. I was being so absorbed with his life story that I too felt grief. Then I kept on listening to the story of him running and running. This again fascinated me to know that this man ran so much and broke the world record just because he felt like it. I had no reason to fact check his words. I was assured that he was telling me the truth.

 

“..... Then one day I received jenny’s message about where she lived. So now I am waiting for bus number 9 to reach her house.”

 

“Where does she live?”, I said excitedly.

 

“It’s this address”, he showed me a card. I smiled and said, “You don’t need to ride the bus to get three. It is just a couple of blocks away.” I gave him the exact location. As soon as he got enough information, he rushed waving goodbye at me. I kept on looking at Forrest until he disappeared from my sight. Even after Forrest was gone, I just sat there thinking. I felt no urgency. I knew I was late for work, which could jeopardize my self-made reputation as a strict and punctuate officer. But this time, it didn’t matter. I had worked for that company for 10 years, but even if they fired me today, I wouldn’t feel any regret. Forrest’s life story hit me so profoundly that I felt I already have all the resources to live a happy life.

“Life is indeed so simple but we make it so complicated. We make a cocoon of ego, self-image, reputation, persona that we completely blind ourselves. We feel secure inside our cocoon and spend our entire life there. We blame our misery on outside forces but never consider ourselves to be the culprit. Perhaps it’s my time to come out of this cocoon and live the life in its barest form.”I thought to myself. “I always worked my ass off to build a business, but I had just met a billionaire who built a business empire without even thinking. Does this mean, I should stop seeking and just enjoy my life? Well, I am going to die one day and no matter how large an empire I create, I wouldn’t mean anything once I am not there to see it. So let me seek happiness from every moment of life, not just my end goal.” After gaining this profound wisdom from Forrest, I became more determined to truly start living my life.

While I was talking to myself, sitting on the same bench, a bus came. I stood up with grace and walked slowly towards the bus. This time I cared to feel my body and things around me. I felt thankful for my life; just to be able to walk properly. I sensed the air around me, heard the birds chirping and ants working. I felt a sense of freedom. With such deep feelings, I onboarded the bus and headed for my new destination.