Do you use your cellphone while driving? If you do then you are one of these crazy drivers. If you are then I'm sorry, you're an idiot. I hate idiots. How can you not hate idiots?

So if you use your cellphone while driving, I don't hate you for nothing. In fact I have a pretty damn good reason.

Last night I came home from a German night-class. It was 8 and I took angkot (a kind of public transport in Indonesia). Anyways, the angkot stopped at some kind of station near my house, and in order to get to my house, I had to cross this road.

I was trying to get to the other side of the road when all of a sudden a Land Cruiser came out of nowhere and hit me. BAM. BOOM. WHATEVER. I was sure, positively sure, that the car was at least a hundred meters away when I was right about to cross (otherwise I should've waited. I'm a good pedestrian. And I do not intend to end my life anytime soon).

But I was fine. A little injured, my legs hurt like !#$^$@#%&*$%666$#, but other than that I don't see external bleeding. My guts are still inside (hah). And I was able to stand back up on my two hurt-like-hell feet. The driver (an old lady-foreigner) stepped down and asked me if I was all right.

And I said, "All right?! You hit me with your damn cruiser, Ma'am, and you have the audacity to stand there and ask me if i'm ALL RIGHT?! Heck, I am not!" And by this time people have gathered around to watch this little scene. The mid-aged lady looked frightened (Which is exactly what you should look like when you're American and you just hit an Indonesian in Indonesia. And when you're surrounded by quite many angry-looking Indonesians. And worse, this little Indonesian kid you just hit speaks English. Gah).

She explained, nervously, that she was calling her daughter and she didn't see me and must've been distracted and accidentally accelerating and blabbity blabbity blah.

In other words, she was USING HER CELLPHONE WHILE DRIVING. I didn't remember much what happened after that, because of the pain, of course, but I eventually forgave her and she left me her number ("just in case you need anything from me"-yeah, I need you to put you're brain back on). You know, if people can get hit by a car and get paid for that, who knows maybe I'd do it for a living. Or dying, in that case.

Today the pain got worse. And my legs were swollen. So I went to the hospital and thankfully it's better now. They wouldn't take my insurance card because I came and listed as "non-emergency patient" sooo I had to pay. How does one little kid pay one million Rupiah (about a hundred dollars)? I took my monthly allowance from my dad, of course, meaning no Manhattan Transfer concert for me, and bye-bye tennis shoes.

You might ask, where's my parents? Oh well, the thing is, I live alone. And before, I lived with my Grandparents in another island. They are retired, over-worrying old folks and I just didn't want to make them worried. Unless they really have to. So I'm waiting for these legs to get better and then I'll tell them. And I'm just too afraid to tell my parents right now since maybe they're too busy saving the world and all that.

And about that number that lady gave me? Nope. I come from Makassar. And people from Makassar have got dignity as big as the Caspian Sea. Sometimes they do stupid things to protect them, and as stupid as it sounds, I am too proud of myself to call and beg this lady to pay me.

What I will do now is to call her and tell her to read this if she has time. You know, maybe this'll help her realize what she had done has made a real big impact on me. I don't get to see my favorite vocal group who came all the way from US, I don't get to have a new pair of tennis shoes for training, and most probably coach Stevens won't pick me for a competition in April anyway, since I can't train. Not with swollen legs, I can't.

And the next time my mother calls me (which is probably when I win Wimbledon or a Nobel Prize in Medicine), the first thing I'll ask her is "Mom, are you driving?"

Patrick from SpongeBob SquarePants, however, found a way of telling me it could've been worse:
"Maybe a story will cheer you up. It's called 'The Ugly Barnacle.' Once there was an ugly barnacle. He was so ugly that everyone died. The end."

PS. I posted this under "Special Education" so these ignorant slobs who came across this may have something to learn.