miscommunication sucks :(

Every day, since the beginning of this school year, I've been riding the LRT to get to school. I always keep my stored-value LRT card in my blouse pocket --along with my cellular phone, ballpen, and a couple of coins-- so i could easily get it and avoid stopping in the middle of the exit machine and stall the other people who want to go out already. I found that pocket really important in my first few days of my college life... that is... until yesterday.

Friday morning, a ghastly object that can only be seen as a silhouette rose from a deep sleep way before sunrise. Legend says that when someone wakes it up in the wrong time, it will throw tantrums everywhere, mimicking an imp's dance. But this time, it can never do anything about it's disturbed slumber. It has no choice but to wake up because the one who woke it up won't mind it's tantrums. In fact, the waker isn't living. It just gives off a cry that only the ears of the sleeper can hear. Often times, even it's ears couldn't perceive the sound but this time, it hears it and is annoyed. It wakes up, kills the sound-maker. The sleeper, eyes still closed but now awake, goes out of it's dark cell and into the light. As it opens it eyes, the first thing it saw is the clock by the wall that says


5:30 am


"SHOOT!! 5:30 naaaa!!" realizing the time, the sleeper immediately snapped out of it's own world created inside it's head and concentrated on being a college freshie named patty.



In other words, I was intending to wake up at 5am but my sleepy body won't budge, I rose from my bed 30 minutes later without realizing the time. I'm supposed to leave home at around quarter to 6 because it takes 1hour to travel to school. But since i have less than an hour to take a bath and eat breakfast, i just left home at around 6:10am.

At the train station, while impatiently waiting for the train to arrive, I played music in my mind because I can't afford an mp3 player. I got my cellphone in my blouse pocket and sent messages to my classmates asking if I was late or whether the orientation started already. Then a guy from behind me said while pointing at the floor, "miss, pakipulot...". His voice seemed hesitant, shy or just plain unsure. At the direction which he was poitning, there lay a stored-value LRT card. I picked it up and handed it to him but he shook his head. Puzzled, I looked around and asked the civilians around me the typical "kanino 'to?". Everyone just shook their heads after checking their purses and pockets but only one man conversed with me. I handed him the card and he asked the other passengers nearby if they owned the card. He returned to his original position and gave me the card. I refused to accept because I feel uncomfortable accepting some stuff that I know isn't mine. So, he kept the card. The train arrived and I comfortably sat on the purple bench and snoozed.

I knew I woke up just in time when I heard the recorded female voice saying "Arriving at Legarda station... Paparating na sa Legarda station". I reached for my blouse pocket to prepare my LRT card. I reached for the pocket. But I could only feel my phone and some coins. "something's missing" i thought to myself. This time, I looked inside the pocket. I felt fully awake when I realized that my LRT card wasn't there! It wasn't in my pocket, nor inside my wallet. The train doors opened, I got up and rushed outside along with some other people. As I was walking briskly down the station stairs, something hit me. A frustrated voice in my head shouted "AKIN YUNG NAPULOT KONG LRT CAAAARD"


Whatever happened next cost me some saliva and some money in order to get out of the LRT station. I just talked to the lady in uniform near the exit and she let me out but I had to pay for the fair. At least I wasn't late because the campus tour haven't started yet.


I could have arrived earlier in school if I just knew that the LRT card on the ground was actually mine. I felt really stupid because I assumed that I had my card safely inside my pocket. And I also blame the guy behind me for not telling me exactly that that card was mine. I guess he saw the card fly from my pocket when I got my phone but I can't see any reason why he didn't tell me. Miscommunication sucks. See what happened to me? Just because a guy didn't tell me that that card was mine, i got into some trouble. Gee thanks mister anonymous guy from behind me last Friday morning. Maybe he was just as sleepy so he couldn't think of any way to tell me. *sigh* oh well...

That experience is reminding me of our CA class last week and it's making me wonder what factors could have influenced his way of communication? I mean.. telling me "miss, yung card nyo nalaglag" is kinda easy right? You just say it like that. In a mall, someone dropped a hundred bucks you won't tell the person who dropped the money "miss pakipulot" right? You will think something like "who the heck is this guy? Is he asking me to get his money for him?"

I guess what happened last Friday is a type of semantic noise. He might have wanted to tell me that my card is on the ground and he wants me to pick it up. But instead, because some factor affected what him, he just told me to pick the card up.

Whatever that factor is, I'm blaming it for loosing my LRT card and P24




and not my pocket...



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damn it. i'm so not good in narrating... *tear* i feel that i give too much explanation and words but if i cut some parts, my story will be incomplete or unclear. i want whatever i write to be as vivid as possible. but my goal is to write something that is really vivid but in less words. i hope i could do this sooner.. :D