Risk.

It was a dark and stormy night. No, wait, seriously. The rain was pouring like some endless crappy waterfall, and the thunder that came with it wasn't helping either.

I was walking past the store room when I heard a faint rustle. It was barely audible, but I heard it. Instinct sent me cartwheeling into the room next to it. No one should have been at home except for me, and the noise was definitely too loud to have been just a nest of cockroach or lizards.

My phone was not with me, and I was running out of options.

Okay, Anne. Grab the thing nearest to you - which would be your Success Biology book - and slowly, slowly - make your way next to the store room. Check out who the hell's in there, and kick butt if necessary.

I peeked inside the store room and could see nothing except darkness. Was the person in there waiting for me to make a move? Fight or flight, Anne. Move, damn it! So I flipped on the light switch, preparing to see some stranger standing in front of me, but instead -

- what I saw was my Blacky, snuggling on the pile of rags and looking up at me innocently as if to say, "What's up, boss?"

"You!"

And that was all I could say in an exasperated tone. I felt more irritated than relieved. Dragging her out was a pain, and clearing up the mess she left was even worse. I realized that I had carelessly forgotten to lock the door, and that was how she had stealthily snuck in to escape the booming thunder. She hated the rain, and despised the sound of thunder.

Looking back, I wonder what would have happened if it really was a stranger who had bad intentions. Was it correct of me to just barge in there without thinking of the consequences? What if it was a robber who had a knife, or a gun? What if it was more than a person? The store room, in a pitch dark state, was large enough to hide two or three people inside. If it really was someone dangerous that I didn't stand a chance on, then it would have been more prudent to hide in the room until everything was over. What could a Biology book do against a strong man? Certainly not much, unless my foot had good crotch-aim.

But Anne was a proud girl, and a proud girl would never give up without putting up a fight.

Someday, someday - this pride would lead to my downfall. I just know it.

How disgraceful. I knew from the past that I did things in an unorthodox manner, but I only realized just how serious of a problem this could be in the future.

And for God's sake, I had better remember to lock the damn door up next time before cranking up the music volume so loudly until I couldn't even hear my dog make her way across the hallway into the store room.

Fuck, what a lesson that night turned out to be.

And today, I went for extra English Literature class. A few friends and I headed to Kanna for lunch, and I followed them to the bus stop after that. Most of them went home pretty quickly - save for Jian Ching and I who were just lazing around, staring at the passing cars.

And then this lady showed up out of nowhere and began talking to us.

Well, I know just how much of a mean bitch I can be at times, but I'm pretty nice and polite in general. She talked, we responded. In a few minutes, she found out that we were SPM students, and in a few more minutes, the topics were running around deeper stuff like the future, studies, work, interacting with people, et cetera. Now Jian Ching wasn't really responsive, so I took hold of the conversation and decided to be the one to talk to the lady. Hey, don't get me wrong - she wasn't boring. In fact, the things she said were pretty interesting.

Turns out that she has a daughter in Australia, doing some research. There were a lot of life lessons imparted in just a few minutes, but they weren't anything that I haven't heard before. I paid attention, mostly because I had nothing better to do, and it would be rude to be unresponsive anyway.

There was one line in which she mentioned, "My daughter has a PR...and she just didn't feel like coming back."

"I understand," I said, and allowed her to continue rambling. Yes, I said that I understood, because I really did. I knew how tempting it was to just leave Malaysia, and never come back again. I didn't mention anything more to her, though, and just continued giving my input whenever I felt that it was necessary.

Never rely on just one thing, she had said. Be multi-talented. Take any opportunities that you see. She said it wasn't about how hard you worked all the time as well - and she told a tragic story about how her daughter and her first boss didn't get along too well. She said that if you didn't suck up enough and you happened to aggravate the people you work with, that's what happens.

And I had an input for that. "I think that it's important to build connections with others no matter where you go, so that they can back you up whenever you need it."

She was agreeing to that, and I found myself looking back over the short span of my life - wondering what I had achieved then.

If that was human nature, then human nature had already manifested itself throughout high school. All our club politics, strifes and arguments - they were about the very same thing, were they not? Leaders worried about the threat of the ones below them, people fighting for the highest post they can get, people sucking to the higher-ups to get what they want.

Again, I understood. It would have been, perhaps, too arrogant of me to put the things we went through in high school to be compared with the working world, but the issues ARE indeed similar.

I left a short while after that to get back to school, but before that - I shook her hand in a very jovial way and thanked her for the advice. I could tell she was surprised, but hey, as mentioned - I AM generally polite.

Well, to people I first meet anyway.

And here I am, just musing and idly wondering what the future holds - because everything just seemed so risky.

Risk, risk - and more risks. Everything in life is a risk.

Anne is a proud girl, and that will lead to her downfall.

I will take the risk, even if it costs my life.