Gracious downpour

Today, a really sweet girl offered to lend me her umbrella, as though she read my mind as I was planning a dash to the bus stop, fretting about not having an umbrella and not being able to go swimming because of the downpour. 

Incidentally, my friend and I were just discussing about how Singaporeans can behave more like citizens of a first world country if we could learn to be more gracious and helpful towards strangers. We agreed too, that this would also require us to drop our over zealous self-reliance to humbly accept help and show appreciation and encouragement to the person who offered help.

But today, I rejected her help, opting instead for a long detour to avoid the rain. So much for graciousness.

Moreover, I could neither, for the life of me, remember her name nor how I knew her. As if that wasn’t bad enough, I realized I actually did pack my umbrella this morning when I looked into my bag after I got onto the bus.

I’m atrocious, and possibly senile too.