Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Life on the MRT

As I said, i only blog when an experience is compelling... and today it is.  After a decade I have taken the courage to take the MRT once more, and boy it's still the fastest mode of transit in the metro! On why I decided to go back to a scenario in my past- which is to take the MRT-  is because I just needed to get home.

Just a few months ago I was a victim of a scam, yep it's the typical scheme of promises for a better return for your money, the stuff that greed is made of. Then discovering that the person you trusted was making a fool of you. It was a terrible experience! It was like being in 6-feet deep of mud in my 5'-1-1/2" height!  Just imagine... and probably someone with a very low emotional quotient wouldn't have gotten out of. But with the help and support of family and friends and the sale of my car, I DID! so which brings me back to why I decided to take the old reliable train and get to where I was to where I needed to go. 

Cabs are scarce in Pasong Tamo, Makati area beyond 5pm and my meeting ended at 6:45pm, hence it was either I walk to the nearest mall or I wait it out. I walked. Which seemed the most natural thing people were doing in that area. I decided to eat dinner first at a resto in Alphaland when i noticed that people were going up the escalator, so i asked the waitress what was happening upstairs! And then she said that the MRT Magallanes station was on the 3rd floor! I said to myself  and with conviction, no more waiting for cabs, I'm riding the train!

So here are the realizations I had when riding the MRT... 
Be patient, if you are like me who haven't ridden the MRT for ages, you would have to rely on your logic, there are no signages in the mall telling you which way to the MRT station is. So resourceful as we are as a people we do it the Filipino way... Follow where everybody else is doing - gaya gaya! Secondly, majority of the Filipinos are not voracious readers, so even if the sign was as big as a billboard in EDSA if it's not in komiks form, it will not be read! There were still a few who lined up in the EXACT CHANGE queue who DID NOT give exact change, which held up the line and us waiting to buy our tickets had no choice but give longing looks to 2 trains pass by. 
It's great to be female, the first 2 cabs are dedicated for females, which means you don't run the risk of a "smear campaign" coming from the sweaty men, and getting assaulted by weapons behind the zippers when the train cab is jam packed. 
It's great to be female and travelling alone,  I saw those women with male companions lining up to get on mixed gender cabs even if it was packed like a sardine can, and just chose to see the whole experience through rose colored glasses- maybe bacause of a misplaced sense of loyalty, and a lot of love but who are we to judge... let the world be the world- but of course regardless of how nonchalantly that was said we all know what happens to your senses in there, so enough said. 
We all have our guardian angels, I wasn't sure what station was next, and I asked a lady standing beside me if it was already the Quezon Avenue Station, and she said that it was the next stop. She probably saw that I was not too sure, she said she was alighting on the same station. She waited for me, and when we were safely on the platform she gave me instructions on where I can either get an FX or a cab and a word of caution to just watch my bags and keep close to the security guards when i get to the waiting area. She was my angel.

I am not complaining that I had to sell my car and commute, In fact I am thankful that I sold my car, it saw me through what I needed to do to rebuild. It's allows me new experiences or a re-run of what I had almost forgotten. Experiences in life teaches you a good and hard lesson simultaneously, it depends on you which train, and which experiences you will hold on to, to get get you from where you are to where you want to go... As one of my favorite author would say: “if pain must come, may it come quickly. because i have a life to live, and i need to live it in the best possible. if he has to make a choice, may he make it now. then i will either wait for him or forget him. waiting is painful. forgetting is painful. but not knowing which to do is the worst kind of suffering.” 
― Paulo Coelho

4 comments:

  1. next time you're on pasong tamo, call me!!!

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    1. Hahaha! I forgot that you lived in the area... yes i will check up on you, i'm in the area about 2x a week. Thanks J!

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  2. Hey! I took the MRT when I visited late 2010! And it was chaos! I realized we need some kind of order in them things. But good on you for taking the ride! xx

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