What floods can teach

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Although friends postponed dinner tonight, armed with my huge umbrella, I braved the torrential rain to surprise one of them at Gateway in nearby Cubao.

But 15 minutes after I got into a taxi, I can still see our building from the window. The driver took alternate routes as soon as he had the chance to avoid the heavy traffic but he hoped would be a shortcut took us to a street where traffic was not just heavy; the cars were as stationary as they are in a parking lot.

The driver, seeing the impossibility of the situation, asked me to disembark and simply went back before even the opposite lane got stuck, leaving me somewhere along V. Luna Ave. But I was not about to give up. Seeing an Ali Mall-bound jeepney, I tried my luck once more.

Soon the traffic got lighter but only because all the vehicles turned at the nearest corner to avoid a stretch of the street we were on, where water was almost knee-high. The jeepney driver turned to us and asked, “Tutuloy ba tayo?” (Shall we proceed?) and only the old men near him answered, “Sige lang.” (Go ahead.)

As the driver stepped on the gas, I heard the passengers heave deep breaths.

Despite the uncertainty as murky as the floodwater, the road ahead held promise. If the jeepney makes it through, we would get to our destinations faster. But if it doesn’t, we would be forced to get out of the jeepney and wade through the flood.

The lady in front of me compulsively pulled her school uniform’s skirt down while the old lady beside me whispered “Diyos ko, Diyo ko,” (My God, My God) and a man drenched in rain encouraged, “Sige pa, sige pa.” (Step on it, step on it.) I think I momentarily closed my eyes.

Soon the jeepney emerged from the flood. While steam vented out of the hood, we breathed sigh of relief in unison.

I looked back and saw some vehicles that hesitated. A truck, perhaps insulted by the fact that a jeepney dared what he would not, followed suit but a black Toyota Innova positioned to take on the challenge but soon turned right.

Inside the jeepney, where it was ironically and ridiculously hot while rain poured outside, I smiled at how the jeepney driver taught me how taking risks are usually rewarding. The jeepney driver was not sure that he would make it through that short stretch where deep holes could be hidden but he took a chance with faith in the vehicle he was driving.

We breezed through what remains of the road to Cubao without much delay and soon I found myself in Gateway.

As if fate was against it, I did not get a glimpse of the face of the one I intended to meet but at least I took the chance.

Perhaps the risk I took today takes me one step closer to taking bigger chances—those worth taking.