30 Days of Bayani Behavior

On a sunny day last week, I decided to go out for a 3-mile run. About 3 blocks into the run, I hear a loud crashing noise. Less than 10 feet in front of me, 2 cars have gotten into a head-on collision. Initially, I thought it was none of my business, but when I saw that an elderly woman in the damaged car, for some reason, I felt like I had to do something. There were about a dozen on-lookers just staring stunned at the accident as well as a bunch of rubber-neckers scoping out the scene as they passed by. No one offered to help, so...I did.

The woman was in her late 70s to early 80s. She was clearly shaken up. I ran to the car and asked her if she was physically okay. She said she was, and after a quick look at her face to make sure she wasn't injured, I helped guide her into the closest parking lot. The guy who hit her was an 18 year old kid who was also just as emotional. He was mad that he got into the accident and was equally as mad that he forgot his insurance card at home. Now, if I were to have stumbled across this scene at 17 years old, I would've given that kid a tounge-lashing the world has never seen before. But this time, I didn't...I felt bad for the kid. He clearly didn't mean to do what he did, and he was genuinely concerned about the old lady. I sat him on the curbside and told him to relax...I told him it could've been a lot worse.

What made things even more shocking for me was the fact that no one came to help. No one. In fact, there were 3 Filipino guys at the side of the street just staring, and I looked at them as if they should've helped, but they turned away and walked away as if nothing happened.

In about 10 minutes, the police showed up. They assumed I was in one of the cars...which I told them I wasn't. I was simply trying to help the two people in the accident. After a brief questioning period, they thanked me for helping them and let me go and I continued the rest of my run. During the rest of the run, I couldn't help but wonder why I helped and no one else did. I also didn't know why I was so compelled to help them. For the first time in a long time, it was something I did that I haven't done before, but it felt so natural to do. I didn't feel an obligation to help them...I just wanted to. I'm not sure why.

Honestly, I'm not a hero by any means.

Seriously, I'm not.

I'd much prefer to just spend my days training and practicing FMA. I don't know why, but for some reason, I just feel the need to help people I think are in trouble. This has gotten me into trouble several times...with one instance involved a guy threatening to shoot me (another story altogether). It's because of incidents like these that I've tried to avoid helping people who don't ask for help. I've been told that you should only give help to those who ask for it, but oftentimes I'm not sure where to draw the line. Right now, I don't have a "formal" job. I earn my living teaching Filipino martial arts, and right now I'm not doing that bad money-wise. However, I want to know what else I can do. I want to do something where I can just help people in a way that feels natural to me. There are millions of ways to help people, but they are all different ways of helping. The way a doctor helps someone is different than they way a teacher can help someone...the way a cop can help someone is different than the way a priest can help someone. I know for a fact that I want to help people, but quite frankly, I'm really not sure which way of helping people is the right job for me.

So, I figured to take the guess work out of it, I'm going to commit to something I've never done before.

Starting this Monday, July 27, everyday for 30 days, I'm going to go around wherever I am, and spend days trying to find random ways to help people who need help. It can be anything...from helping a person move into their apartment to helping someone out of a sticky situation like a car accident or something like that.

I'm honestly nervous. I'm not sure how this is going to play out. Let's just hope I learn what I'm supposed to do and hope that I can do the right thing.