Self-Preservation skills sounded like jargon to me in the year that just passed – 2010! That was one glorious year for there wasn’t one month that passed without me having to suffer pain from some tragedy. Having said that I must take this opportunity to mention that each event whether it was under my control or not taught me something valuable which I chose to use to shape my future life. Let me take the pleasure of walking you through the journey of my life in 2010…..
January 2010 – Was the quietest month possible as I had just come back from my 4 week long trip to hometown –India. They always say that beware of the silence for it brings with it the storm right behind (might have slightly contorted to suit my needs but something similar I guess). I believe it now for fun things started happening in feb 2010!
Moral from this month: Nothing lasts forever. If there are bad times good times are not far behind!
February 2010 – My apartment got broken into. I should rather say that it got shattered for the people who were interested in the things that belonged to the apartment smashed the door open to suit their needs. I live on the third and the topmost floor of my building which is a part of a complex collectively called the Bingo Farm (name changed). Entrance to the apartments in my building is achieved by entering through two gates. The main gate barricading the entire complex which although has spikes on it, can be easily surpassed by a rock climber and I presume would be child’s play for thieves with determination! The next gate is inside the building that opens doors to all the apartments – two on each floor until the third. That gate has been preserved, in my view, from the post war era (from when my building was built) for not only does the golden color metal plate covering the lock look like steel but it is also bent beyond recognition. Flabbergasted at the way my apartment door looked, I had to walk the stairs twice and re-trace my steps to make myself believe of what had happened. It also made me think like a thief – jump the main gate, open the bent door with a crowbar, walk up three flight of stairs – but wait why? Well…for one if anyone heard unseemly noises, people living below my apartment would just assume that I am home (no-one cares enough to walk up the stairs to check) and secondly if I was to steal a first floor apartment I could get busted by someone who lives above?
Moral for this month: Look at the brighter side of things – while your neighbor lost her laptop I just lost replaceable jewelry. Did not lose my passport or my apartment wasn’t broken into while I was home!
March – April 2010 – I was frantically looking for a new place to move into which guaranteed more security or where the gates don’t look like they could be displayed in a historical museum. Alas –at the nick of the time when I almost finalized a sub-letter for my apartment and found a decent place the management in the building I wanted to move into decided to give it away to a crack addict who signed the lease as soon as she saw the apartment! Convincing myself that if I was the owner to the place that got broken into then I wouldn’t have shunned it with the first break in I decided to stay put and be brave. However, after the break in I hid my camera under the sink, my passport in a safe place that no one can imagine, and almost every day I walked back home expecting my apartment to be broken into once again.
Moral for this month: Shit happens to everyone. You are no one special. Just laugh it off, take precautions and flow with the tide!
May 2010 – I sprained my ankle so bad that it was almost close to a fracture. Ultimate frisbee has been my recreational love for about two years now. During the third game of summer league, while the game was on, I cut out from the stack, caught the Frisbee from the handler, tried to set myself in the mushy grounds (the grounds sunk in after 24hours long rain) and WHAM I fell to the ground while still holding the Frisbee in my hand. Only after I realized that I cannot get up without help that I dropped the Frisbee to the ground and yelled – I had to atleast make sure that the game wasn’t turned over right? Walking on crutches for over 2 weeks was definitely not fun for although they look cool, crutches hurt your armpits and arms like a Beeetch!
Moral of the story: Never let the Frisbee go off your hand until you know for sure that your ankle/leg is screwed beyond words! Everything is an experience – now I can claim that I was hard core to have walked around practically everywhere with crutches for 2 weeks (time is relative – 2 weeks felt FOREVER)
June – July 2010 – Was recovery period for my close to fracture ankle although staying away from sports was making me lose my traces of sanity in me.
Moral for the months: Sanity in possession = Stable healthy mind.
August 2010 – I bought my first gorgeous sexy super sharp knife. Excited about cutting vegetables I decided to try it the Chef way and I went chop chop chop CRUNCH – there goes some flesh off my left index finger. After much resistance, my friends convinced me that if I did not step into the ER that I would bleed to death. Least did I know how broken the medicare system in The developed U S of A is. I was made to wait for over 4 hours after which when I went to seek information about when I would be seen by the higher authority, what I hear is “Since your case is not a typical emergency you still have 18 other patients in front of you”. That is when I snapped and bid them Good Night! Unfortunately for me I still got slapped a good 200$ even though I was just seen my this frustrated, morose, insensitive nurse who dressed my wound worse than what I would have done for myself!
Moral of this month: Unless you are dying do not go to the ER. They are just going to let you bleed to death and slap you with a bill for lack of service!
September 2010: Ellis avenue is one of the busiest streets in the University as it is bustling with students walking by – going home, coming to lab, going to gym, running and the list is endless. Despite that, automotive owners choose to play it their way and drive as fast as they possibly can on the busy road. I was biking to the gym, and just when I wave my left hand to indicate to the cars behind me that I intend to turn to the gym, a car decides that it would be faster and safer if she just sped fast enough and pass me before I turned. WHAM! She hits me; I go flying out of my bike landing on my chin and breaking it open. Shocked by the entire situation, I start walking away from everyone just mumbling that I am fine, I am sorry until I start seeing big drops of blood dripping from my chin. Fortunately no stitches were required and I am just left a very tiny scar.
Moral of this month: Everyone around you is blind and/or stupid so YOU need to boost YOUR Self-preservation skills!
October 2010: While playing flag football, I charge for the quarterback to pull the flag off her waist and/or to make her drop the football and WHAM I hit my left thumb onto the football. It hurt but not enough for me to give up playing. It swell up and for 5 weeks, under the impression that it was a mere bruise I went climbing, played fall ultimate Frisbee, worked and what not. 5 weeks hence, my thumb looked like a balloon and completely unhappy. After having gotten X-ray done, I hear that it is a pretty good fracture and that I need to stop anything that is going to wack my thumb again. I get a splint and am barred from sports. There I saw my sanity walking away from me.
Moral of this month: Focus on the flag and not the football. Start honing your self-preservation skills.
November 2010: Fall ultimate tournament day- Nov 5th 2010. While playing, I cut out of the stack, tried to catch the Frisbee, fumbled, dropped it and fell to hit the back of my right ear hard enough to lose focus for a fraction of a second. Fortunately for me, the temple lobes and the centre back of the head are the worst places to get hurt and the back of the ear is almost harmless. Phew!
Moral of the story: Nothing is more important than maintaining the perfect structure and profile of your physical and mental self – Not even a Frisbee!
December 2010: After having pushed myself into the ditch for the past several months my body decided to take revenge by making me suffer through a sensitive stomach. Sparing you guys of the details that you wish that you did not hear, all I want say is that I am still paying for the torture that I put my body through and hope that there is light at the end of the tunnel! 😉
Moral of this month : Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Indulge in every bit of food that you can possibly find and be merry.
Lessons learnt and the grand conclusion: HONE YOUR SELF-PRESERVATION SKILLS!
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