Yubo Jin

October 12, 2026

ESL 100

American Spirit

         “BOOM!” The car accident happened. It was 1 year ago, I had the accident, everyone drove past me and stopped to ask me if I needed help. It was surprised because I had never felt such kindness from strangers in China. A lot of people are afraid of helping others these days because most people don’t want to get in trouble. It might because some people will blackmail others when someone try to help them. The spirit is kind of an English slang “Mind your own business!” That day, I didn’t get hurt. I just get damaged my car, but I was grateful for people who stopped to try to help me.

       In March, 2025, I was living in Tuscaloosa, Alabama studying English at the Because Tuscaloosa is located in a very nature place, I love driving down on windy roads. and driving on windy road was my weekly routine. One day, after a hard rain I was driving on a windy and peaceful road, It was a manual front wheel drive car, but it couldn’t drift. I like to do a little understeering sometimes. Understeering means entering a corner with a higher speed and feeling the front wheels lose some grip. At first, I was feeling fine, and everything was going well, so I decided to go faster and crazier. Then I pulled the handbrake, the rear wheels were out of control suddenly because of the slippery road. The car ran into a mailbox. I felt a strong shake, and my mind went blank. After that, I parked the car to the right and checked if it could still drive. When I was checking, everyone who drove and passed me asked “Are you ok? Do you need some help?” Everyone! I was surprised by the kindness of people in that city because I have never seen the same in my life before. I felt that American people are so kind, especial the southern people. When I got out of the car, I just saw some outside damage, but the main powerful parts were good.

    I was thinking about why this minor thing made me feel so surprised. I thought that it might of because I didn’t see people care about others so much in China when I was growing up. This unfriendly trend in China has been happened for a while because of the terrible system and country development way. For instance, there was a famous case where a man helped an old person who fell down on the road, but the old person said that he knocked him down. The judge asked, “If you didn’t knock him down, why did you help him?” It made people start not trusting each other and not have extra energy to care about others because of the stress from life. In addition, China’s crazy economic development hided people lack of a rich inner life. As the famous Chinese painter Chen Danqing once said, one of the biggest problems people face today is boredom. People often have nothing to do on weekends, but they always feel the need to find something to keep themselves happy. That’s one of the reasons why the entertainment industry in China has developed so well. Most people focus more on material wealth and less on spiritual growth. 

    From that accident I felt that America great is not because the country is great naturally. It is the American people and the spirt of American made this country became great. The spirt of American people that has helped me and touched me time and time again. This also strengthened my thought to stay in the United States. The Stars and Stripes Forever!