Lost in the City

How long have you been living in your town? Have you already familiarize the streets, jeepney routes, and the places which are crucial when you go to city halls or other facilities to get documents or have an outing with your family? Well as for me, I’ve been in our town for a long time already, it’s been 8 years since we migrated here from the province but aside from the route of going to school and back, I don’t really know other things about the city's streets and jeepney routes.  

It's not that I haven’t been in the city ever since coming here, in fact, I've been there a lot of times already but in all of those times, I have someone with me it's either my brother, father or a friend/s. I have someone to rely on in terms of directions and what jeepney routes to ride on. 

But yesterday I'm all on my own, nobody to rely on. My first destination is going to my school. It was my second time going to school this week, the first was to check any updates as to why I still don’t have my class schedules and it turned out that I still need to complete my medical tests. I came to school again to pay for my medical tests and then I was instructed to go to the school’s affiliated clinic in the city. I scratch my head thinking where on earth is the clinic located at. I check the papers that were given to me by the school and was delighted to see a sketch of where to find the exact location of the clinic. Only one problem remained, what route of the jeepney to ride on? I messaged my father but didn’t receive any reply, message my cousin and brother and still no reply, after 30 minutes of waiting for a reply the third friend I asked on finally replied and save me. Lol 

When I arrived at the clinic, I have to do the 9 medical tests but unfortunately, I arrived way too late for the last one which is the eye test. They instructed me to go to the other clinic, they only give the name but didn’t provide directions. I asked the guard and she said “Diretsu ka lang dyan at may makikita kang green na building, punta ka duon” (Just head straight into that direction and you’ll see a green building, go there) I followed the guard’s instruction and after walking for 15 minutes I arrived on the corner of the street and found green building in both left and right directions.... now where to go next? 

I decided to go in the right-direction because it was the... right direction? ( hahaha I don’t really know what I’m thinking that time lol) and so I walk for 15 minutes under the scorching heat of sunny afternoon again. I was so tired but still didn’t see any clinic, and I suddenly thought that I could actually use google map to search for directions(dumbass) and it turned out that the clinic is just 1-minute away to the left from when I had decided that the right-direction is the right direction.😬

I finally arrive at the clinic, took a rest again, and feel the coolness of the clinic’s A/C. After a while, I go to the reception counter and ask for the optha eye check-up. Unfortunately, they’re on a cut-off already... what an unlucky day for me!  

And now time to go home, I also don’t know where’s the exact location of the assigned jeepney terminal route back to my place  I only remembered it was on the back of a known college university here so I opened the google map again and search for directions. Thankfully it’s just a few minutes away from the clinic. 

Final thoughts 

This is the problem of someone who always prefers to be at home. Someone who won’t go out unless it’s really needed. It may not be a problem when you’re young, but as you grow older and need to handle things all on your own, you need to memorize the city's places, routes, and streets because almost all of the important facilities are there. Thankfully we are now in the modern era where with just a click on your phone you can now find directions, you can even travel the world and loiter on the streets with google earth. 

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THANK YOU FOR READING!