I was having a good conversation in the café with three friends while café started to empty out. I forgot who mentioned it but we started to talk about what each of us would do if something bizarre at Mercy happened.

Due to all the school shootings lately, we realistically thought about what we would do if something like a school shooting did happen at Mercy College.

School shootings happen for all different reasons, I’m not saying they are justified (obviously) but there are real reasons behind them.

Sometimes people just flip out and it makes their brain and mind go berserk. There is something that turns off in a person’s brain and turns on the crazy.

Shootings in schools today are worldwide and are turning into something that is becoming a trend for the crazies.

Realistically, what would you do if someone walked into the Mercy College café or library or anywhere with a gun and demanded for something, or tried to take someone’s life?

I have a full blown plan but in the situation itself, when full panic mode is on and all the adrenaline in your body is pumping, your brain isn’t functioning because you just want to run to be safe but is that the best thing to do?

Do you expect the amazing security that we have on campus to save us from someone with a gun, or even a knife perhaps?  The same security that lets cars be keyed and lets anyone into the dorms without even a peep of an I.D. The same security that falls asleep at the button (yes there is a picture that an anonymous person has but won’t leak).

Or instead of depending on someone to save you, will you try to save yourself. What is your fight or flight plan?

Forget Mercy for a minute and just put this exact scenario into a real life situation.

What if someone came up to you in the middle of the street one day with a knife asking for your money or for your cellphone, what would you do?

I went to a high school that was in a really good area of Brooklyn but the area around the good area wasn’t and of course in order to get home, I had to go through the bad parts to get there.

One day I was waiting for the Q train at Church Avenue in Brooklyn and some woman comes up to me and asks me what type of I-Pod I had. She got in my face, pulled out a knife and demanded for me to give her my phone, I-pod and wallet. I refused and she got really close to me; my first thought was to go into my bag, where my phone was, and to pull out the pocket knife I would always carry with me. I got into this women’s face and asked her if she was sure she wanted my stuff.

She said “No forget it, I’m good.”  and fled the scene. I calmly went up to the train station where I knew the cops were and told them what happened to me. One officer said “I don’t know what you want me to tell you pretty lady, if she ran she ran … good job.”

I was appalled and disgusted. I thought I was able to depend on New York’s finest to help me while I was still shaking because I almost got stabbed.

When I went home, still shaking, and listened to my mother yell at me and told me to put my pride away and next time just give up what I have because it’s safer.

I told my mom, the safest way out isn’t always the best way out. Basically, I am saying this story because this is the real world and things like this can happen all the time to anyone. Keep your eyes open and don’t think that the world is as safe as it seems. Don’t depend on anyone and definitely don’t avoid thinking about things like this.

Now the real question is, What would you do? Would you fight or flight?