Fortunate Life

I’m sharing this not for sympathy, but for awareness. Honestly, I still cannot believe this happened to me. I am usually very careful. I double check names, numbers, and details before sending money. I am the type of person who pauses and verifies. But this time, I was busy. Distracted. Multitasking. And that was all it took. An online friend messaged me asking if I had a GCash balance. Let’s call her Friend A. I said yes. She told me she urgently needed to borrow money and promised to return it the next day. At that time, I was working, so my replies were delayed. But she kept following up, asking if I had already sent the money. What made it convincing was this: after some time, she started asking about work related topics. Exactly how we normally talk. The flow of conversation felt natural and familiar. There were no obvious red flags. In fact, just two hours before that, we were having a completely normal conversation. So I sent the money. She asked for a screenshot. I sent i...

  Last Sunday, we went to Montemaria to experience the glass walk. I had seen photos of it before. People standing on a clear platform, high above the ground, with nothing but glass beneath their feet and sky all around them. It looked beautiful and terrifying at the same time. On the way there, I kept asking myself, “What if I get scared? What if I freeze in the middle?” I have never really considered myself afraid of heights, but it is different when you know you will actually step on transparent glass and look straight down. Part of me wanted to back out. Another part of me wanted the thrill, the story, the feeling of doing something that stretches me. When it was finally my turn, I took a deep breath and stepped forward. To my surprise, I did not feel fear. I was waiting for my heart to race. I was waiting for my knees to shake. But none of that happened. Instead, I felt calm. I looked down through the glass. I looked around at the wide view, the sky, the horizon. I felt p...