When things change

FEBRUARY 14, 2013. I had an afternoon Valentine date! With my sister, Jo-An and my sistah from another mother, Mae! The previous day, we had agreed to watch Coco Martin and Julia Montes’ movie, A Moment in Time. So, at around 230pm, we found ourselves standing at the queue for the movie, waiting to choose our seats. By the time we got our tickets, we had time to spare to buy popcorn and drinks. As we headed back to the theater, people were starting to be ushered inside. Ah, perfect timing!

The lights were dimmed but not too dim. The aircon made me shiver a bit but it was not something I couldn’t handle. We were comfortably seated in the middle portion of the theater so it was quite clear that there were a lot of people watching as most of the seats in front of us and behind us were already taken.

We were chatting as we walked towards our seats and just as I was about to sit down, I felt an intense pain on both knees. I winced and cried out in pain as I slid down the floor. Unknown to me, my seat had folded up leaving me no seat to sit on! Argghh! There was so much pain in my knees that for a moment, I was scared that I had torn some ligaments. Oh no! Not again! I took a deep breath to calm myself and assured my sister that I was okay.

I just needed to recover from the shock of falling down and from the pain that it caused me. I stretched my legs one at a time and was quite surprised that one of the theater staff approached me to see if I was okay. I assured her, too. Really, I felt I was going to be okay. The pain had already dissipated from my right leg and I was almost sure that once I manage to stretch out my left leg, it will be fine, too! I just needed time to get my bearings, regroup my thoughts and then get things in order!

While I was pep-talking myself, I realize that eyes were on me. A friend had asked how I was and a really nice stranger even offered to help me stand up. I declined because I was not ready to attempt to stand; but I said my sincerest thank you. By this time, another theater staff had approached me to ask me again how I was.

“I’m okay. I just need time to recover.”

“Okay Ma’am. But if you should need any help, we’re here to help.”

Wow. The people in this theater are so nice!

Needless to say, I was totally floored (no pun intended) too when he sat beside me on the floor and said that he’d wait a while with me. It made me feel good that he did not mind sharing with me the discomfort of being seated on the floor, in the middle of the aisle, seen by everyone!

I smiled at him and said that I was really okay and that I was not embarrassed at all about my ‘unique’ seating arrangement!

Not at all embarrassed.

Wow.

I remember a time when I would get flustered just by thinking of a possibly embarrassing situation. Sitting on the floor after a major fall in front of strangers clearly belongs to this red-in-the-face category! But surprisingly, I kept my cool! I guess it comes with the acceptance that there are things that happen that you simply prepare for, no matter what. These accidents are tests of one’s person in the face of uh, challenges.

Two things I learned from this.

One. There will always be nice people. One of the reasons why I used to dread experiences like this is the fact that people have the tendency to laugh at you rather than ask how you are and help you. Sure, it is really not their problem but I happen to think that human beings are kind by nature so it hurts to be proven wrong over and over. Most especially when they not only laugh at your ill fate, some can be so mean to even ridicule you despite your misgivings. As if!

The people who came up to me to make sure I was okay, most specially Kuya Rommel of the Abreeza Mall Theaters, who came to check on me twice and even sat on the floor with me, renews my faith in the inherent goodness of man. Kuya, I greatly appreciated your gesture. Sobrang thank you for making me feel important! I am very happy that people at work can actually and in fact, do go out of their way to help someone. It’s a really good, good thing to experience firsthand. It made me want to pay his act forward and be of help to someone else too! I hope we all practice a little ‘humanity’ everyday. It is good for us and for the people we reach out to help!

Second lesson. Things change. As they say, the only thing permanent in this world is change. We are in a constant state of flux and so we have to learn the intricate balancing act of life. Even when we do not balance well each time, we still have to be prepared with the consequences of certain events and also our actions. There is nothing more stressful than being stressed about something that we cannot control and so, we need to learn to let go sometimes and trust that better things are in store for us in the future.

Life is not all bad experience and sometimes from bad experiences come good things too. I may have had an accident that day but even with the pain and discomfort that came with it, I learned still that the world is filled with better things that should be celebrated. It will be foolish to dwell on the pain mainly because it passes! Concentrate on the good stuff and you will be happier and more hopeful for the future! Learn to rely on the inherent goodness of humans and to always pay attention to life’s lessons no matter how seemingly small or unimportant it is. From my experience, I have come to realize that all our life’s lessons will find its significant place in our lives when the time calls for it. Then, you will know that all your hurt, pain and discomfort was all worth it! Happy Sunday Everyone! :)