☺ On Commuting and Self Defense ☺

There was a time when I worked for an advertising agency. It was far from where I lived so I had to commute to and from work every day. Given the traffic situation, I travelled for roughly 2 hours back and forth all week long, except of course during my off days. I considered the years I worked there as a huge sacrifice on my part because I was not really used to commuting. I worked until 7 in the evening but because of the nature of my work, I had to stay longer and I would usually get everything done by 9. Given that the distance between my office and my house was unimaginable and well, being a woman, it wasn’t that comforting to ride the bus late at night.

In fact, I experienced being held at knife point by a hold-upper who had his eyes set on my cell phone. Fortunately, I had the presence of mind to scream at the top of my lungs to catch the attention of the other passengers as well as the driver and bus conductor. When I did so, the bad guy fled just like that. I guess I had my angel with me then.

When I told my parents about it, they immediately prodded me to take some lessons on self defense. It’s a good thing that my then boyfriend was a martial arts expert and so he taught me the basics on how to protect myself against the bad guys. But of course, after the incident, he made sure that he’d fetch me from work whenever he could. Aside from that, he gave me a can of pepper spray for just in case.

I never thought I’d ever need to defend myself but I guess reality can be as harsh as it can get. At least now, on the rare occasions that I ride the cab or the bus, I always make sure I remember what the ex taught me. It may not have worked out between us but I learned something valuable from the relationship – the art of self defense!