You never know what you might learn on the road

You can never know where you might find something that puts things in perspective; You might find it while watching a movie, or even while underwater. I found one in a conversation with a grumpy sarcastic jeepney driver. The kind that seems to have a sarcastic comment to everything a passenger says like "Saan po ito? Paki sabi naman po kung saan bababa, drayber po ako 'di manghuhula." You'll never expect it right? You'll just think a driver obnoxious when he bludgeons his way past the mass of people out from the sidewalk of the LRT station, honking his horn like mad and clearing commuters out like a lawnmower through grass just to let his passengers off.

I bet you'll never guess that a someone like that will be a college graduate, with a degree in mechanical engineering from Adamson University no less. Or think that he regrets spending for an education like that when it will only be used to maintain his jeepney and ply it for the last 7 years because it was impossible to find a proper job. I'm thinking you won't imagine that he is heartbroken after his wife left him recently, saying he never thought that it would hurt that badly, that now he understands what kind of pain and desperation drives people to commit suicide. Now he is burdened to take care of his 4 young children, expressing his feelings through his snide comments to his passengers. I could see the expressions on the other people's faces. Some of irritation, others of amusement. But they could never have heard the whispered story of the driver I heard.

See that... a mechanical engineering graduate, who has been plying his jeepney for the last 7 years, who cries over the loss of his wife and now earns a meager living to support his children. If that doesn't put things in perspective, I don't know what will.