Lucky 23

On Monday, I turned 23.

I've always had a good feeling about 23 as an age, just as I knew the 22 was going to be yucky (apart from the whole coinciding-with-the-release-of-Taylor-Swift's-hit-single thing).

I was supposed to be at work that day. I work a lot of Mondays and I was down to work this one, even though it was my birthday. I'd requested it off months and months in advance, but due to staffing issues, it didn't look like it was going to happen.

I asked one of my colleagues if she minded working on a low head count that day and she said no, so after some persistence my managers okayed the day off.

At about 3.15pm on the day I was at the station with my mum, waiting for a train into London as we were going to a restaurant to celebrate. I got a call from my Area Manager to say that the store had been the victim of a robbery. I won't go into detail, but the incident was frightening, dangerous and sinister. It was of a completely different nature to that which these stores are used to. Thankfully, no one was hurt.

For the rest of that day, I couldn't shake off that chilling feeling. It could've been me, I could easily have been there. How would I have dealt with it, how would it have affected me? What might have happened differently? Might things have been worse? Seeing my colleagues in counselling a couple of days later and hearing the full story was shocking and surreal.

Two things I have learnt from this situation, are that: 

1) I am a lucky person. Even though I complain, I don't really have any problems, and God is looking out for me.

2) Asserting yourself is important. If I hadn't made myself ask again (and I did hesitate about it) I would have been there. At best, it would have been the worst birthday of my life. At worst, I could've been injured or even killed. You just don't know.

A thought-provoking start to what I hope will be a positive and productive year.