It Could Have Been Me

I guess you've all heard about the Glorietta Blast. Let me just say one thing: I am so grateful that by some force of heaven, things didn't go the other way.

Let me explain for a second. I am a Glorietta Person. Ever since I could remember, I have always thought of Makati—and Glorietta in particular—as my sanctuary. You'll often find me lurking around the shops at Glorietta, looking at books or buying clothes. This mall is like my third home.

The blast happened at Glorietta 2 at Luk Yuen. Near this resto is a branch of Starbucks where I usually buy a cup of coffee before going home. A few steps further are branches of CD-R King and Booksale, two other stores were I frequently hangout to buy stuff from.

Thinking about it, it could have been me. I could have been one of over seventy people injured in the blast. Or worst, I could be one of the unfortunate few who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. I could have been just a few meters from the blast. I could have been ordering a cafe americano. I could have been buying DVDs or thumb-drives. I could have been browsing through books. I could be lying in a hospital right now. Or the scariest thought of them all, I could have been a lump of meating flying all over the curb.

But I'm not.

It's really an eye-opener when something like this happens. Had my theater org's event fallen on another day, or had I been hard-headed and decided that I will not catch-up when they left me (because I was late), or had I been impulsive enough to go to Glorietta today, you might not be reading this post.

But you are.

It's weird when I think about all the possible things that could have happened. It really makes me wonder how great the circumstances were that place me away from the things could have happened.

You might think of me as too cliched, but I really believed that the Higher Powers are still keeping me here because they have a plan. As John's mom reminded me, this is the second time that I dodged a Makati incident--it was also luck that kept me away from the blast that happened on a bus under the Ayala MRT station a few years ago (I get my ride home from there). I feel so lucky that some possibilities turned out to be impossible and that I am still here, still alive, still kicking.

Glorietta is closed for now, and will remain closed to the public until all things have been sorted out. In my estimate, it'll take more than a few weeks to clean out the mess and to finish the investigation. The long time it'll take for them to rebuild and resecure the place will be the amount of time I have to wait for until my sanctuary becomes a safe place once more.

Until then, I guess I'll just have to live my life to the fullest. Because even if it could have been me, it turned out that wasn't me--and that's all that really matters.