Intuition

I’m a big believer of intuition or what others would call gut feeling, that red light that goes on when you know you’re about to plunge into a shitty or dangerous situation. Intuition is as ancient as mankind itself. And I believe that with the educational system focusing more on training and nurturing the left side of the brain, this important key to our survival is being eroded as our brain gets used to logical, thoughtful thinking instead of split-second decision making. I’m not used to following my gut, as I have been trained to think things through, especially life-changing stuff. So when I’m confronted with a situation where I just know in the pit of my stomach exactly what is whatever it is, I’m torn between following this nagging feeling or thinking it over before taking action.

One such situation happened this morning. I got on a jeepney that was waiting for passengers at the side of the main road. When the jeepney was almost full, the driver stepped on the gas pedal and we were off. A few meters away, he saw a guy standing, probably waiting for a jeepney, and the driver stopped and shouted to the man the jeepney’s route and waited if he’d get on. The man just looked inside, and then got on. He sat opposite me, and the minute he sat down, a creepy feeling washed over me. It’s like getting mugged all over again. Flashbacks of that fateful October morning bombarded my mind, and I started to panic in my head. My first instinct was to get off the jeepney immediately. My gut was telling me to get the hell out of there.

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October Nightmare – Lessons Learned II

Who would’ve known that I’d learn and realize many things out of an incident I’d rather forget? In the previous post, I laid down precautions one should keep in mind in order to minimize one’s material loss should an unfortunate event like this happens. But more importantly, one must also take extra care of oneself especially. I was lucky to get out of it alive, unscathed even, despite some wrong moves I made out of fear and just absolute shock.

Before something bad happens

Know thy neighbor. Yes, a sense of community has its advantages. Unfortunately, as an area progresses, this fades and people become more and more distant, indifferent, even apathetic to the people in their own community. Know where the baranggay hall and the police station are located. Take down their phone numbers. Get to know your subdivision’s security guard. Get to know the homeowners’ association officers. Get to know the baranggay tanods. Especially, get to know your neighbors, as they are more likely the ones to respond first if you cry for help. Chances are people will help you if they know you.

Be present. If you live in the city, you know all too well that crime is most rampant when approaching the Christmas season and elections. Traveling alone sometimes can’t be helped, and during these instances it is imperative to be completely aware of one’s surroundings and the people. Don’t go and get lost in daydreaming, as you are most likely to be bitten by the snake and you wouldn’t even know it until it’s happened. If you see something suspicious, alert the people around you or the authorities if possible. You can never be too careful in these hard times.

Trust your instincts. This is one of the most powerful things every human being possesses, and yet we doubt it most of the time. If you get that feeling in the pit of your stomach that something bad is going to happen, more often than not, something bad really is going to happen, that you’re not just paranoid. Looking back now, when the motorcycle came out of nowhere the second time, I should’ve walked back toward the boarding house and waited it out. Somehow I feel I ignored that gut feeling because I didn’t want to be late for work.

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October Nightmare – Lessons Learned I

I believe in the saying, “Everything happens for a reason.” Good and bad, things happen so that we may get something out of it. For weeks, I thought of reasons why such a thing has happened to me. Sometimes I think if I had been too good already because my observation is that bad things happen to good people and the bad people always get away with what they do. I jokingly tell my friends that maybe I should be bad again so that I’d be spared from the bad things. But of course, that’s just hogwash.

On a surface level, here are the invaluable lessons I got from the stickup.

Pockets are there for a purpose, so use them. I used to put my cell phone in my pocket. But on that fateful day, I just tossed it in my bag, along with my keys and wallet (containing money, government-issued IDs and ATM cards). Unless you’re riding the MRT or LRT, pockets are relatively safe places to put stuff in. Since the incident, I haven’t replaced my lost wallet. I put my cell phone, keys and money in my pockets.

Bring only what you need. With regards to money, I lost a thousand pesos on that fateful day. I withdrew the day before, hoping to consume the money for the rest of the week. Since the incident, I now only bring a little over the exact amount that I need when I go out. This is also a great money-saving habit, as you won’t succumb into impulse buying because you don’t carry with you some extra cash to spend.

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October Nightmare – The Stickup

It’s been almost two months since I last poured out my thoughts here in my corner of cyberspace. A lot has happened and I got caught up in a rollercoaster of events good and bad. September passed me by like a bullet train. Nothing much to write about for that month as it was all work, work and more work. But let me tell you about an event that rocked my life like a magnitude 9 earthquake and triggered a chain reaction of events that led me to where I am now.

October 1st. I was on my way to work at 3:30 AM. I just live nearby where I work but I leave at this time so as not to be late for my 4:00 AM shift and still have time to fix myself before commencing work. In the subdivision where I stay during the weekdays, one would think twice about walking the streets at such an unholy hour, but maybe it was the brashness of youth and the nagging urge not to be late that made me indifferent to the perils of living in the metro.

As I walked the dimly lit street, a motorcycle zoomed past me with two guys on it. Thinking it was just the neighbors having an all-nighter, I went on. A couple of minutes later, the same motorcycle came out of nowhere. Still thinking nothing bad about it, I walked on. When I reached the corner of the pharmacy where it was really dark, a figure of a man loomed and walked toward me. He was slim, taller than I am, wore a jacket and a cap. I couldn’t see his face. At that moment, I knew I was in trouble. He declared it was a stickup and grabbed my bag.

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Airplanes and Life Vests

One of the shows I regularly watch on the National Geographic Channel is Air Crash Investigation. See, ever since I was a kid, I wasn’t really a fan of air travel. I’d rather endure an eight-hour road trip than an hour-long traffic jam-free flight. What adds to my air travel anxieties is a show like this one, but I love watching it because it satisfies me intellectually. I like learning about stuff, and the irony that a small mechanical defect or simple negligence can make a jumbo jet come crashing down just baffles me.

Probably the most important thing I learned from watching the show is about life vests. In one episode, a plane had to make a water landing, so passengers and crew alike put on their life vests. The captain announced that the life vests should not be inflated until the plane had landed, but due to mass panic, most of the passengers had already inflated theirs. The plane’s water landing was a disaster and the plane was sinking fast.

With the passengers’ seatbelts buckled and their life vests inflated, they had a hard time getting out of their seats because the seatbelt was holding them down while the inflated life vests were pushing them up. Though some were able to free themselves from their seatbelts, they couldn’t swim to the exit because the inflated life vests were pushing them to the ceiling. Those who hadn’t inflated their life vests were able to get out of the plane and swim to the surface. Those who had their life vests inflated before the landing unfortunately drowned.

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