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- #68. The cost of accosting.
#68. The cost of accosting.
Shem Opolot
April 19, 2024
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Who am I? I’m Shem Opolot, a health professional turned content creator, passionate about helping people be their best selves in life and work.
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Hi! I'm Shem Opolot, and this is The Friday Fix, my weekly newsletter. If you've received it, you’re either subscribed or someone forwarded it to you. If you fit into the latter (yes, I’m the kind of person who uses words like “latter”) camp and want to subscribe, then click on the shiny button below:
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Happy Friday 🎉 Today, I bring you free business advice: Do you know what the most expensive fluid in the world is? Take your time, I’ll wait.
*checks notes*
Scorpion venom.
A liter of scorpion venom can be worth as much as $10 million. The fact that you’re still reading this instead of farming scorpions is the reason why you can’t have nice things.
LIFE.
The cost of accosting.
Gif by syfy on Giphy
Hi! My name is Shem, and this is my villain origin story.
I couldn’t take my usual bus/Subway combo to get to Penn Station, so I scheduled a Lyft for 5 a.m.
Naturally, at 4:55 a.m., I couldn’t find my keys, and the impatient driver outside caused my phone to rattle the dining room table like someone was cutting a well-done steak on it with a blunt knife. Fortunately, this was a one-in-a-million occasion when retracing my footsteps actually worked.
The Lyft driver’s playlist was made for me, so Lauv, J. Cole, Rick Ross, and SZA lubricated the car’s wheels so we could make good time.
It was my first time using the main entrance of Penn Station.
I usually access it from the underground subway like the servants access the dining area in Downton Abbey.
But New York’s patent and omnipresent scaffolding obscured the mystique of the station.
What are they always building in this city? If New York City were a high school in Uganda, its motto would be “Brick by Brick.”
I digress.
I levitated into the station via the escalator.
At the foot of the escalator and about 20 large strides ahead, a shabbily dressed woman whose dreaded hair pointed in at least five directions accosted a gentleman.
She needed money.
I sped ahead, praying she wouldn’t call me.
“EXCUSE ME!!! EXCUSE ME!!!!!
“Shit!” I said to myself, before turning around to meet my fate.
You see, I’m new here. I haven’t yet mastered the art of ignoring solicitations on the street.
She needed money.
I told her I didn’t have cash, but I used the word “accost,” didn’t I? Do you know what “accost” means?
She insisted and took another step closer—a half-step away from snogging me.
“There’s an ATM right around the corner. PLEEEAAASSSSE!” she said in soprano.
I accepted, and we held hands and skipped to the ATM.
Okay, no. We brisk-walked to the ATM, and I maintained a stride ahead of her, ensuring she fitted in my peripheral.
The ATM chimed as it ingested my card.
The minimum withdrawal amount was $20!! But she knew this. She had done this before.
With every tap on the touch screen, she became more impatient. She even tried to help me enter my PIN.
I stood back and glared at her.
“My bad,” she said, absent remorse.
She clicked the 20 box on the screen and even declined the option to get a receipt. I remained composed.
Instead of playing with my card in its mouth like you do with fruit before spitting out the seed, the ATM swallowed my card.
What are the chances?!
SHE WENT BALLISTIC!
“YOU HAVE TO HAVE ANOTHER CARD, PLEEEEAASEEEE,” she said repeatedly while yelling and banging on the ATM screen.
I backed up, made a face of resignation, indicating my powerlessness to help her, and rushed to the waiting lounge, praying she wouldn’t follow me.
She followed me.
But I made it into the lounge, which was guarded by two tall security officers, who I assume believe the saying, “God helps those who help themselves,” is biblical. Because I’m pretty sure they watched the whole ATM fiasco go down. Or perhaps they didn’t want to interfere with my rite of passage.
She couldn’t access the lounge, so she watched me disappear from her view, the same way your loved ones disappear into the gut of the airport when you give them the real real last hug goodbye.
I was scared, angry, and sad.
And without my bank card…but $20 richer(?)
Have I learned my lesson? Will I ignore every overture on the street from now on?
We’ll see when I get off this train.
THINGS.
A quote
You should also watch this movie if you haven’t. It’s one of the greatest of all time, and the late great Robin Williams acted like the rent was due.
Medicine, law, business, engineering—these are all noble pursuits, and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.
The hoodie cycle.
lol sharing clothes, like house sweaters and shit, with women is funny. They love to wear your stuff because it smells like you but you be looking forward to getting it back because now it smells like them. That’s the reciprocity of love right there
— Son of Isaac (@pmnycd)
2:46 AM • Apr 7, 2024
A picture
“Everything the light touches is our kingdom.”
Walks with Zi are the best!
WORK.
There’s an app for that III.
If you have time during your next presentation, use these tools to make it more engaging:
For live polls and quizzes
My goal in life, well, one of them, is to ensure you’re not basic. Ever.
FUN.
The Friday Fix Playlist
Below are incomplete words. Place four (4) letters in each bracket so that you can complete the word on the left and begin the word on the right. Good luck.
bo (****) mal
home (****) le
fe (****) ness
who (****) lasting
or (****) ings
Answer below
Shem’s picks
✅ Pictures of real places on Earth that look fake.
✅ The loneliest house in the world.
✅ The world’s best condiments
Answer:
bother - thermal
homesick - sickle
female - maleness
whoever - everlasting
ordeal - dealings
Have a great weekend,
— Shem
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