Look both ways, but which way first?

Yesterday I was walking to school taking my usual route. I have developed a strategy to get to class as fast as I can in order to minimize the amount of time it takes to get there and to get there right as the lecture is starting.

A concept that we all know and love is captured in this expression: "The fastest way to get from point A to point B is a straight line," and it's one that I use on a regular basis. So I like to apply this concept whenever possible if walking is involved. Thus my routine walk to school usually requires jaywalking at a minimum of two times. Damn streets are organized into square grids with no diagonals.

So as I'm crossing the second street, which has several parked cars along either side of the road, I almost got smoked by a car. Or at least it felt like I was a foot away from death as the car zoomed by. We are always taught to look both ways before crossing a street. I didn't immediately recognize that with the cars parked along both sides of the street, the street was reduced to one-lane. And by convention, in North America, we look left, then right. So I looked left, felt a little confident about sticking one foot into the street, and then ZOOOOOM, a car comes flying by on my right-hand side. Wow. That was a close one. I'm not sure if that was a near-death experience, but it was as close as I want to come to being hit by a car.

It reminded me of an incident that happened at Western when I was probably just about to enter university. A story about an international student who was hit and killed by a car during O-week. She, coming from a country where the traffic direction is backwards, looked both ways, but looked the wrong way first, stepped out into the street and was hit by a car. Unfortunately her life ended just as it was just about to begin.

So I guess what I'm saying is to be careful. Do the best that you can to have control over your actions because there are so many things that are out of your control. Wear your seatbelt. Don't get into that car with a driver who has been drinking. Be as confident as you want but realize that confidence is not an airbag.