A good friend's daughter finished high school, just obtained her driving license and started college all within two months. We'll call her Fay.
Since she chose to study law in a not so nice part of town, I gave her a few tips on how to avoid trouble. The first thing I drum in is not to hang around fools. To define what a fool is to a seventeen-year-old, I have to borrow one incident involving Elizabeth. I acted as driver in transporting Elizabeth and three other friends to a nearby shopping mall. Two of the friends I have met and I find them respectful and sensible. The new one, however, was another kettle of fish. From the time she got into the car, apart from greeting me, she talked non-stop. Now, don't get me wrong, I actually like listening to another person who can give me interesting and informative facts. What this girl talked about, is something she did not know very well. Worse than that, she revealed a lot of things about herself and the person she was addressing in a loud voice.
As I pointed out to Elizabeth when she came back from that outing, I pointed out to Fay how loud and indiscriminate talk at the wrong place can endanger the talker or the girls she was with. All it takes is ten minutes of such loose talk, unknowingly offending a suspicious character while they were waiting for pick up. A potential stalker would have sufficient information to look the target up in face book and create havoc. It does not matter that we are comfortable or happy, a cafe, a subway station, walking area of a shopping mall are not appropriate places to loudly talk about personal information such as name, college, places we live in, or any other info that others can use to find out more about us.
A second tip is to place her hold all under the passenger seat. If we place our handbag on the passenger seat, a criminal can break the passenger window with a heavy object and snatch it within seconds, even in front of a traffic light. If we put our back-pack on the back seat, it means we have to spend a minute more to retrieve it. While we bend down to pick it up, we would be standing inside the door. If a bad person block us right behind us, we may be molested by that person and we cannot run away as the car door blocked us. Therefore, we should do everything while the doors are locked. Pick up our bag, our keys or whatever, only when we have got everything ready then only unlock and walk out immediately. Lock the car as soon as we can and leave the parking area without undue lingering.
As a young person grows older, freedom comes with responsibilities. As parents cannot continue to escort or send young adults everywhere, it is up to the youth to learn and practice a few safety rules that really is common sense in moving around a city.
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