Saved a toddler’s life today.

There’s a daycare a block away from my apartment building. I was walking by there, early this morning, face buried in my phone (hey, we all have our vices), when suddenly… A woman’s scream. A running kid. The road.

I didn’t even think – or look behind me to see if the road was empty. I jumped in front of the kid, legs spread, arms wide, to stop the traffic from hitting him. We did not get hit.

His mother ran up a few seconds later, scooped him up, dragged him back to her SUV. Less than 10 seconds, from start to finish.

I often wonder what I’d do, how I’d react if I suddenly ended up in a life-or-death emergency. That’s not something you can test for, not something an online quiz can predict for you, not something you can simulate in a safe and cozy environment. Fight, flight, or freeze.

I’m still a bit shaken, even three hours later, and I’ve self-medicated with a few croissants (this being Quebec, after all) and an extra-early glass of wine. I’m glad I was there to jump in front of the kid, and I’m equally glad to learn how my body would react when something like this happens. (Specifically the body, not the mind: none of this is rational or carefully contemplated.)

One of my biggest heroes is Adam Attalla. It was 2022. He was 18. There was a house fire. Two kids were stuck on the roof, the third one trapped inside the burning house. People stared and pointed and did a whole lot of nothing. He ran into the house next door, then upstairs, through a window, onto the roof, jumped to the burning house’s roof, and saved all three of them. There were no casualties that day, no serious injuries. He had no training: just an average teen, but he did something heroic when everyone (especially the next-door neighbors, who were very much aware of the fire) stood still.

I’m not particularly eager to head into the next incarnation ahead of time (things are finally going great in this one!), but doing so while saving others is probably the most impactful, the most noble way to go. And now I know that I’m the kind of person who jumps into the middle of the road without a second thought to save a child… And that’s a damn nice thing to know about oneself.