When Trauma Overrides The Senses
I was on my way home earlier. I was on a bus. Rush hour happens and to my dismay I’ve been forced to wait for a bus that’s not over crowded so I could sit down. It never happened. Its rush hour as I’ve said. So, I had no choice but to go for the standing ovation buses. I have to get home early. The travel was exhausting. I was standing all the way till Regalado Avenue.
It’s traffic. Unusual. It’s the summer so there’s supposedly no traffic congestion on that part. But there is. Then we heard the police sirens and the gunshot from way ahead. The people who heard it immediately started murmuring. When we reached the part of the road where the traffic merge, we saw the empty jeep and to my utter disbelief, I saw the dead man. Blood drooping from his head and chest.
I think I just saw my nightmare come to life. I’ve never been that close to that kind of crime before. One of the latest passengers relayed the stories to the bus conductor. being so near to them I can’t help but overhear the story.
Apparently, it was just supposed to be a hold-up. The driver, seeing police officers so near from them, drove the jeep to their direction. The hold-uppers feeling agitated, panicked and cruelly shot the driver in the head. He immediately died. I didn’t know him. I never saw him in my entire life. But here’s what I heard, he was a good man with a family. He was hard working. He just tried to help his passengers. He’s just unfortunate and killed in his attempt to become the hero. He had children and a wife. Who would support them now?
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I realize something that moment. And it’s not, “Commuting is really unsafe” but instead, “Life is indeed very short.” He wasn’t even 50 yet. He was rather healthy, and yet he died so abruptly. In an instant, you stop breathing. Every plan and dreams and goals you have just vanished into thin air. In the biggest IF’s of this world, I could have died today as well. I could have been in an accident of some sort. I could have been killed by anyone. What could I have left my family or friends or loved ones? Memories? Are they even strong or beautiful enough to endure this world? I realized it’s not. 2 decades and still, so many more memories out there to create. And still thank Him that it didn’t happen to me. God is still good to me.
So go ahead, cry your eyes out. Love with all your heart. Be reckless and make mistakes and learn from them. Live the life that you wished for. Grab every opportunity. Seize every beautiful and amazing moment. Experience a heartache. Love again for the sake of loving. Be wonderful and awesome. Dance and sing until you can’t anymore. Feel every bit of emotion. Don’t allow regret to have room in your existence. Because at the end of the race, it’s not how long you’ve had to go. Its what you did to keep on going.
