Alic

(Sigh)...Damned if you do, damned if you don't huh... Well that's fine, you can have whatever opinion you like Michael, that's your take on it.

I'm more interested in how others have taken on situations that are dangerous to them, and what they've learned from them. In my case, it was a perpetual series of loses on my part, though I'm not certain if there can even be a "winner" in that kind of circumstances. However, thanks to those experiences, I did learn good life lessons that have helped me through my later life.

This one is a more recent escapade, after I've started training in Aikido.

I was walking home from a late night house party during new years eve. Walking down the main road, I passed by a house that was quite rowdy, even for new years eve standards. All that flashing light and music made my gaze linger on the house longer than normal. This attracted the attention of a few of the guys that were sitting on the front steps of the door. I didn't notice they were there until they got up and start to come towards me. What got my attention was that there were four of them, and they walked close together, all looking at me and talking quietly to each other. It wasn't long before I realized that they were stumbling a bit.

Right then, I realized that with the neighbourhood as quite as it was, and them as buzzed as they were, it was likely that whatever they wanted with me, it wasn't going to be enjoyable. I'm not much of a runner, and even drunk guys could probably catch me, so I liked to not be out of breath when having to defend myself. That made me decide that I should just walk quicker and and not appear nervous, but keeping awareness of what they were doing, in case I had to quickly take up stance or bolt for it. They called out to me (hey, you, hey~) but I ignored them and continued on. They followed me for a short while, but since I've already put some distance between us, they must've thought that it's just easier to return to the party. I looked back and they were walking back towards the party. At that point, I let out a breath I didn't know I had held, and relaxed my whole tensed up body, totally glad that they found girls and alcohol to be more interesting than my blood.

I feel that in this case, I was a winner since I had been non-confrontational, and as a result, escaped harm. I believe that I kept good zanshin while still maintaining a nonagressive atmosphere, and as a result, was safe whilst defusing the situation.