I nearly got myself into a fight this morning. I was waiting for the train to arrive at the MRT station, when a couple of "orcs" arrive and wait right beside me, without any regard for my personal space. One of the "orcs" was clearly trying to get in front of me, slowly trying to shove me out of the way, even before the train arrived. And it wasn't even crowded to begin with! It was bad enough that he was trying to get one ahead of me, what's worse was he had this stink on him that seemed to shout to the world, "I haven't bathed in days!" The train arrives and hell breaks loose. My regular practice whenever I take the MRT in the morning is that once the doors of the train opens, I usually enter as quick as I possibly can, and make a beeline nearest to the door I will alight from. Since the trip only takes about 10 minutes, I don't bother trying to find a seat. The situation this morning was that the "orc" was intentionally blocking me from entering the train, so that he and his other "orc" companion could be the first ones to enter the train and get first dibs on the "prime" positions. I had already been waiting for the train to arrive for about 10 minutes and I was not going to let a couple of lowlifes take advantage of me by pushing me off. As soon as the train door opens, I jostle my way inside, shoving the orc who was trying to get in my way. But this "orc" was really persistent, and he decided to give me an extra hard push, while I was already standing in place. Finally, it dawned on me, there was tension in the air! I finally blew my top off, telling him, "Tangina mo, bakit mo ko ginigitgit?!" (Motherfucker, why are you pushing me?!) I think the "orc" was just itching to have a fist fight right there and then because he said a particular line that you normally hear from the mouths of schoolyard bullies, "Ano bang gusto mo?!" (What do you want?!) Right there I realized, that this orc didn't have a care in the world if we brawled in front of the crowd, inside of a moving train. I decided that it was not worth my life to pick a fight with an "orc" who didn't have a care in the world if he ended up killing me. The phrase "halang ang bituka" came to my mind while I was contemplating punching the asshole. Thats just how "orcs" are. Today, I learned to pick my battle, and ended up swallowing the bitter pill and turned my back to him. A few moment after this "altercation" took place, I'm pretty sure all color left my face, and had the "orc" continued to egg me on, he would have noticed the fear in me. I was afraid, borderline terrified thinking of the things this orc and his equally ugly companion could do to harm me. They would probably stick me in the back with an icepick for all I care. I thought to myself, what would I have done, should the situation escalated into an all out fist-fight? I would probably have whipped the guy's face with the umbrella I was carrying or probably kicked him in the balls for good measure. Then again, maybe not. I searched my past for events in my life when I had been in a fist-fight, and I could only remember one from my elementary days, and I ended up on the losing side. I realized that given the situation when push came to shove, I won't be able to defend myself physically if I had to. This is what angers me: when people take advantage of me and I can't even do anything to defend or retaliate.