12 Things I learned after the incident

1. A report about the robbery was in this tabloid yesterday and I thought … it sucks to be in the newspaper when what I really want is for it to be on national television (hopefully, a picture of The Evil Bitch will be flashed on TV screens soon.)

2. Some people from my company were really cruel. Aside from reminding me about my “katangahan,” this guy from our security department was even laughing like a hyena when he read about it in the newspaper. Crab mentality at its best!

3. .. and I know that people who hate/envy me for no reason are secretly gloating. A friend’s words to me ring true: ” Crimes, accidents and disasters happen.Ipagdasal na lang nila na wag ding mangyari sa kanila yan.”

4. The most comforting words I’ve heard at this time:

May God bless you and your family. God’s abundance is
already being shared to you. God is limitless in His desire
to make you prosper. – email of reader Joey Zuniga-Modi to me

I wish that you get back a thousandfold of whatever you lost this year.
Close your eyes and affirm. – from Cath

“Ju, when you are that down, there’s no other way to go but up.” – from Anna Lyn

Hmmm, sana nga. Or that nothing as bad as this will happen to me or my loved ones again.

5. Life is a cycle. Ten years ago, I was a victim of pickpocketing twice in a row and now this.

6. It had to take something like this to happen to realize that I had been complacent about home security as well as the safety of my belongings and valuables.

7. One advice: own only a gadget you can afford to lose.

8. Sometimes, those precious jewels are better off in the pawnshop or some sturdy bank vault.

9. I don’t know if I can trust a househelp again. I have to get rid of my bias that they’re all cut from the same skin. My kids will be independence-trained this early because I now totally abhor the idea of having a stranger totally unrelated to me living in my own house.

10. I am boycotting Christmas in Manila next year. Me and the kids will be off somewhere quiet. To hell with all the parties, shopping, traffic jams and chaos.

11. I remain thankful because a lot of other worse things could have happened. It was a crime painlessly committed but I still want her caught and be jailed because she still could victimize countless others.

12. And after all is said and done, experiencing something like this can be liberating. Surely there is a purpose on why this has to happen. I am not attached to material things. I don’t have to be.