Personal Space

There’s something about commuting that violates the very nature of personal space. It’s not just countries that have boundaries, people do too. Well, if you don’t, I do haha! My theory is that every person’s boundary has four sides, each side 5-10 inches from the body. Respecting other people’s personal space means being just at the edge of that boundary unless, you’re family, a friend, or a significant other. It is breached when shaking hands or when you’re being given something which is pleasant of course. Commuting, however, is not so nice, you don’t really allow people to break that barrier they just have to because riding a jeep, a tricycle, a bus, a train, or a shuttle means squeezing yourself in because every mode of public transportation here tries to maximize the space, and I mean maximize for optimum returns in the form of fares.

Every public vehicle is a sardine can that’s ready to pop any second. Sardines don’t have much space in their cans when they’re packed. Imagine being all squeaky clean and smelling good on your way to work riding a jeep, then here comes a stinky, sweaty, and sticky person who chose to sit beside you for the whole trip. Mmmmmm… Don’t you just love it?! There’s no boundary to keep you from the stench, getting wet with his sweat, or from feeling his skin sticking to yours. You might even smell like him when you get off. Here is another scenario: You’re minding your own business, keeping your hands to yourself, and holding your bag close to avoid having it in the way of other people (and of course to keep it from thieves) getting on and off the train. This man gets on, stands in front of you and raises his arm to get a hold of the safety handrail. You’re smaller than him so you get a blast of the air conditioning along with his body odor, armpit odor to be exact. Then the train suddenly breaks, his body odor, his stench is now stuck to your face. Yeeeaaah… Well, it doesn’t really have to be that bad haha. You can get elbowed in the face or hit by a bag on someone’s way out. You could be staring at someone’s crotch when you’re sitting down and can’t look left or right because it’s too crowded.

Isn’t it just great?!