Western Uncle Gone Wild!

This is my story when I was waiting in a taxi stand. Last Friday I went to Vivo with my mum, after we finished shopping at about 9 PM, we felt very tired and decided to go home by taxi. We went to the taxi stand, and there was a long queue already. In front of me and my mum was a young man and in front of him was a western man. The time passed by slowly, and few taxis available that night. When I was queuing with my mum, this western man was speaking in his language; I didn’t know what language is that. I kept on waiting in line and did not care about what he said. But as time past by, he talked louder and louder, and it caught my attention; I was wondering what did he blabber about, because he talked like he was scolding someone, yet he talked to no one. Also, every taxi that passed by he was shouting “Here! Here!!” in an angry tone, and looked into the main gate where the taxi drop off the passenger. For once, he talked in English to a man behind him; he asked whether the taxi also take a passenger from the main gate. The man pretended not to hear him, maybe because he thought that the man is weird and he was listening to MP3 player at that time. As I looked into the main gate, I realized that this western man misunderstood about the taxi procedure in Vivo City. He did not know that the gate is for the taxi to drop off the passenger only. I understand that he was tired and frustrated as there were little taxis available during that time. I also wanted to go home because I have waited about an hour for a taxi. The western man became furious and he jumped from the taxi stand hedge and went angrily to the gate. As he went there, he stopped the taxi and immediately went inside the first taxi available, the first taxi driver asked him to go out from the taxi. So he went out, and stopped another taxi behind. The second taxi did not ask him to go out, but what I saw was the taxi driver explained him to wait in the taxi stand.

I’m trying not to judge his action, but I can’t control other people perception and thoughts. Because there were a lot of people saw the incident that day, social perceptions, which is how people form impression and make inferences about other people, are inevitable. People usually have some thought about other people behavior, which is in this case this western man. Maybe some people thought that this man was weird, or maybe the others feel that this man was annoyed.

We create our own reality with our thinking; something happens and we think about it. What we think determines our reaction and experience. Our minds are always busy making meaning of life events. The problem is that we don’t always know we are doing it. Over time this making of meaning becomes automatic and happens outside of awareness, that’s why it is called automatic thinking. It is automatic because we have practiced certain thoughts and reactions so often. The first think in my mind when I saw his behavior is he was tired and frustrated. I was tired myself, and was irritated by fact of few taxis were available at that time. As of this, it is how I see my emotional reactions; I felt that other people were also felt the same way to. They also tired and want to go home soon. But this western man with his anger cut the queue and takes the taxi from in front. I’m not blaming him because he misunderstood the rule, yet no one told him about it. So based on automatic thinking, other people will think that he is a weird man instead of telling him the rule.