Sometimes the best lessons come from the worse of situations. I actually got involved in a little bit of accident not so long time ago. I was driving back home after sending my friend to his hotel on the other side of the city. I was a lil bit drunk, but I was doing alright. It was 4 in the morning so I guess it was more of sleepiness than alcohol intoxication that made it happen. To make stories short, I bumped into another car at a traffic light. It must be quite a hard one because I could feel my car tremble and the bang was loud enough to bring me back to being fully awake again.
I went out of the car and prepared for whatever that might come next. I waited and a man came out of the other car, walked over to me in a hasty pace and I was prepared to defend myself in case he’d hit out at me or something. So, closer and closer he came and I stood my ground, my hands ready. When he was close enough, what he said to me was totally unexpected.
“Are you alright?” he asked, looking more concerned than angry – which relieved and confused me at the same time. “I hope you are alright” he said further – which made me even more confused. “I’m sorry” I said, truly to what I really felt at that time. “It’s ok. Accidents happen. It’s not that you did it on purpose anyway” he said very calmly.
We checked on his car and later mine. His was a Peugeot and mine was – well – Made in Malaysia – so I don’t have to say which got the most damage. As if owing me some explanation as to why he is on the road at 4 in the morning, he told me that he was on this way home from a hospital after sending his little son who suddenly fell sick in the middle of the night.
“He was shocked but he’s alright”, he said as if trying to calm me down instead of himself. “I really am sorry” I said again. “It’s OK. But to tell the truth, you were lucky because it was me who came out to you instead of my wife. She wanted to go out just now but I asked her not to. And believe me, you wouldn’t want to deal with her” he said, chuckling as he said it. I didn’t have to look at his car to know that his wife was there inside the car too.
“Look, it’s four in the morning and I’m sure you want to go home too. Let’s meet up tomorrow to talk about this” I said while taking out my ID so that he could take a pic of it. I gave him my contact number and said goodbye to each other.
Somehow I feel like I really learned a very big lesson from that guy that morning. He had a little kid (who was sick) inside that car when I rammed into it and yet he was very calm and composed when he approached me. It made me feel ashamed of the way I react to others in probably much lesser strenuous situations.
You see – again, the best lessons in life come from the most undesirable situations. Perhaps, Epictetus really put it best when he said – It’s not about what happens to you but how you react to it that matters.